I got to have it! (Matthew 13.44-46)
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“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls;
on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Intro:
There is definetly something to be said about......
.......both understanding and apprereciating the Value of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.
(pause)
Freedom let me ask you a question.....
What does the Gospel of Jesus Christ mean for your life?
What has it done for you?
How valuable is it?
(pause)
Anybody been Rebuilt!
Anybody been Restored!
Anybody been Reclaimed!
(pause)
Because once that clicks.....
.....once we get that down pat
(pause)
We immediately understand how much we mean to God!
We will realize that before we were even a thought in the ideas of our parents..
.....that we were on the mind of God!
God knew us then.......and God knows us now!
......and nothing has changed in terms of how much God loves us!
And.....
......what I love most about God is that God is for you!
We’re not qualified
We don’t deserve it
But nevertheless.......
God is for you!
(pause)
In God’s very essence......
God is a creator
God is a builder
God is a redeemer
(pause)
But it doesn’t really click in our heads our level of value to God.....
until we realize the level of value that God puts on the Gospel and the Kingdom of God...
(pause and expound)
Now....
In this text family......
There’s only one voice adequate enough to talk about how valuable the Kingdom of God is.....
(pause)
It would sound foolish to hear somebody other than Jesus Christ explaining this...
(pause)
Because nobody else has a justifiable place of reference......
Nobody else has experienced it!
(pause)
If it was somebody elses parable.....
maybe we could argue about the validity of this story.....
But this is Jesus!
....the same Jesus who when God our creator was sweeping throughtout the crevices and canyons of earth’s capacity.....
.........there was not a life that was suitable for God’s purpose
.....so God pulled out of God’s self
.....to send his only begotten son Jesus as our Redemptive solution for our sinful humanity...
(pause)
And so.....
Jesus is explaining the value of the kingdom to the disciples through a parable......
(pause)
And in doing so......
Jesus is pointing out two different types of people....
He is describing Finders....
and....
He is describing Seekers.....
(pause)
And the reason I want to segway into this Gospel of Matthew this week......
.....is because I believe it will bless us in our study of the book of Acts as it relates to why the Gospel is so valuable.
Because....
....before there was an Acts church
.....there was the Logos (the word made flesh)
And....
Sometimes God will give us something valuable
.......and then come back and talk about it!
(pause)
And not only that but.......
I believe that in our time together this morning there are examples of both....
Seekers....
....and Finders!
(pause)
Because some of us........
Wasn’t looking for nothing........
…but by the time we got through stumbling around in the field
we came out of it saying.....
I FOUND SOMETHING!
(pause and expound)
And then some of us.........
Were looking for everything.........
we knew how to price match
.....we had experience
But then.....
we found out that our everything wasn’t as big as God’s everything!
(pause and expound)
And Freedom...
I believe when this hits the way it’s supposed to hit......
.......We will start realizing that the Gospel value is so high that
......IT turns ONE person into a THOUSAND
.....and it turns a THOUSAND into ONE person!
(pause)
And I don’t know about you......
......but I just believe that there’s still some folk around Gwinnett county saying,
“I got to HAVE IT!”
Some don’t have a clue
Some think they know everything
But nevertheless......
“I got to have it!”
Some of them will come stumbling
Some will come seeking
But nevertheless.....
“I got to have it!”
(pause and expound)
Watch the text....
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Jeus says.....
The Kingdom of heaven......
“or the rule/reign of God”
is like a treasure.......
“something extremely valuable”
And watch this......
Jesus doesn’t say the Kindom of heaven is.......
He says,
It is like.........
(slight pause)
Because.......
.......Jesus is trying to find something close enough to make sense in their minds to how great God’s plan for us really is.
But.....
........if he really opened it all the way up the GLORY would be too much for them to handle!!
(pause)
And so Jesus just takes out the pen of creatitvity....
and paints this picture to simplify it for their minds......
(pause)
Jesus says in my spirtual imagination......
“A certain person is working out in the field..........
.....and when I think about who would be out there in a field I see a farmer who has field reasons to be out there....
But......
......doesn’t have treasure reasons for being out there.
(pause)
And there are some people who are living their lives with field reasons!
They are in the field because they are supposed to be in the field....
......they are living their ordinary lives
.....and the greatest level of expectation in their lives only reaches a value that is ordinary.
(pause)
And Jesus says....
While this certain person is in this field he finds something........
(slight pause)
And....
.......to me that means that the initial intention was not to discover
But...
........this persons plan is to just get through the day......
(pause)
But while this person was minding their own business......
......working out in the field
........as his mule is dragging the plow through the dirt
.....the edge of the plow accidentally HITS something
(pause)
And Freedom I just believe that......
........there are some scenarios in some peoples lives
......where they are just going to be moving along casually, minding their own business
And then all of a sudden
......they’re going to unintentionally HIT SOMETHING that they were not expecting to HIT
(pause)
And Jesus says.....
…when this person in this field FINDS what he was not looking for
.......he buried it back into the dirt so no one could find it
…and in his excitement
“....he went and sold ALL he had to buy this field”
(pause)
Now watch this.....
....because the bible says that,
He was so happy about what he found........
.....that without hesitation he went and GATHERED everything he had
(pause)
.......and took everything he OWNED and used it to buy this field that contained what he has just found!
(pause)
Now here’s what blew me away about this in Jesus’s story......
He really doesn’t want the field.........
He’s only buying the field because he wants the treasure!
(pause)
And so once he buys the field.....
.......and retrieves the treasure
.......he doesn’t even need the field anymore!
(pause)
Because at the end of the day......
He has retrieved the thing that has signficant value..
(pause)
And not only that but.....
......what he is giving away is stuff that he has collected over the years of his life that have value.
(slight pause)
And I don’t know about you.......
But over my life I have collected several things that are extremely valuable to me!
(slight pause)
But Jesus says......
.........when he FINDS what he was not even LOOKING for in this field........
He makes the decision that......
(slight pause)
What I have FOUND.......
is GREATER than everything I already have!
(pause and expound)
And in my spiritual imagination........
all I hear this person in this field saying is,
“I got to HAVE IT!”
(pause)
But watch this now.....
Because in my spiritual imagination I see this man finding something that he didn’t expect to find......
And the next thing that comes to my mind is that somebody had to put this treasure in the field to be found.......
And so maybe......
As the Church we should be REACHING out to FINDERS!
Planting something in their lives so powerful and so great....
.....that when they HIT IT unexpectedly
......all they can get out is the words,
“I GOT TO HAVE IT!”
(pause and expound)
When the Samaritan woman was at the well all by herself drawing from Jacob’s well.......
She HIT SOMETHING!
Because.....
Jesus reached out to her!
(pause)
Freedom!
I feel like REACHING some folk that wasn’t LOOKING!
(slight pause)
But all of a sudden.......
Something just HIT their WHOLE LIFE!
(pause and expound)
Watch this......
Because....
....Then Jesus turns and says to the disciples....
there was another person I want to talk about....
(slight pause)
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls;
on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Jesus says.....
.......there was a trader of pearls who was traveling around searching for pearls
.....and he came across a pearl that was even greater than what he was seeking......
.......one that was so precious and so immaculate
.......that he just had to have it.
(slight pause)
In today’s time.....
.....we don’t see Pearls the way they did in biblical time.
.......but for them Pearls would be how we see Diamonds!
(slight pause)
Pliny (Plenty) the elder said,
Cleopatra owned two pearls worth the sum of four million dollars...
(pause)
And so when this pearl trader finds this pearl in Jesus’s parable...
He makes a conscientous decision......
to go and get all of the pearls that he had ever found.....
.....and lets just say for the sake of conversation that he owned pearls equal to the value of the ones Cleopatra owned!
(pause)
Because it’s easy to see him giving up everything......
.....until we start counting up how much everything is!
(pause)
And Freedom family,
This is the IMPACT of Jesus’s story.......
......because as the disciples are listening to this story
.......i see their mouths dropped wide open in my spiritual imagination!
(pause)
I see their eyes bulging widely!
(pause)
Because I believe now they are begining to understand just how valuable.........
.......this Gospel really is!
(pause)
Jesus says......
I’m not talking about a response that suggests something has little value......
(slight pause)
But I’m talking about.......
.......something that has enough value to CHANGE your ENTIRE LIFE!
Generational Value!
Functional Value!
Phsycological Value!
SocioEconomic Value!
Spiritual Vaule!
And.........
Jesus says,
This pearl trader
.....went and got everything he had of value
........and said....
“sell it all”
(slight pause)
.....and when his friends asked him “WHY?”
......when his spouse asked him “WHY?”
(slight pause)
In my spiritual imagination......
I hear him responding to say.......
“Because, I FOUND something GREATER!”
(pause and expound)
And Freedom......
(slight pause)
I thought about this.....
And I asked myself the question......
Have we forgotten the VALUE of the GOSPEL?
(pause)
Where are the FINDERS?
and.....
Where are the SEEKERS?
(pause)
Where are those people who Discovered what they were not trying to Discover?
and then.....
Where are those people who were SEEKING something of value and stumbled into something that was GREATER than they could have ever imagined?
(pause)
Because Jesus says......
.......that once they found out the VALUE
......the only response they had was,
“I GOT TO HAVE IT..........”
(pause)
And Freedom family.......
I’m praying that what Jesus was teaching in this parable
......would take place in our NOW EXPERIENCE!
(pause)
That.....
.....as we are WORSHIPPING
and....
......as we are SERVING
and....
......as we are LEADING
(slight pause)
that.....
.........FINDERS and SEEKERS will start shouting with a Faith sound that says like the woman with the issue of blood,
“I GOT to have it!”
(pause)
And Freedom family.....
I don’t know about you........
......but if a farmer and a pearl trader can give up everything
......due to the fact that they have found something GREATER in value...
(slight pause)
I believe we can RISK everything we have for the sake of the GOSPEL!
.....when we think about how valuable it really is!
(pause)
Everything that prevents us from giving God our ALL!
.....we should be willing to say,
Because I have found something of GREATER VALUE......
I’m ready to get rid of this other stuff......
Because......
“I got to have what Jesus is talking about!”
(pause)
I wonder if there’s anybody in here ready to.......
FIND SOMETHING Greater.......!
And......
I wonder if there’s anybody in here that’s ready to
SEEK after GOD for something GREATER!