God Provides Abundantly

 The kingdom of heaven is not a distant future reality. It is already present, active, and available to us right now. Jesus uses the parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price to show us that the kingdom is worth more than anything else we could pursue. It is a present reality, a living relationship with God, and a culture that stands apart from the values of the world. We are called to live as kingdom people, not out of obligation, but out of genuine love for the Lord. The challenge is to shift our focus from what is lacking to what God has abundantly provided. When we approach our faith as a relationship rather than a requirement, everything changes. 

Transcript

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Brothers and sisters in the Lord, there are some things in life that you cannot place a price tag on. Some of you may remember the old MasterCard commercials. They actually appeared in over 120 countries. They went something like this: a cup of coffee at Starbucks, $3. Today it would probably be $6, but then it was $3. A round of golf. $300. A night on the town with dinner and the theater. $800. Seeing your grandchild for the first time. Priceless. And then it would say, there's some things money can never buy. But for everything else, there's MasterCard. They use that commercial for many years. But it's a reminder, my dear friends, that there are some things in life that you cannot place a price tag on. For example, how much would you take for your health? How much would you take to sell a child or a grandchild? What type of check would you want? What would the amount be? Notice I didn't ask about your husbands. When I used this example earlier, someone told me in the back of church father, I would have given it to him for 50% off. How much would you take, my dear friends, for your mental capacities? There are some things in life you just cannot place a price tag on. They're priceless, they're valuable. And it's that analogy, my dear friends, that Jesus is using in the gospel today as he speaks about the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. You see, my dear friends, as we continue to live our life as disciples of the Lord Jesus, Jesus is instructing the disciples as well as the crowds, and he's using this image, and he says, the kingdom of heaven is like an individual who finds a treasure buried in a field. And then he goes and sells everything that he has in order to obtain that field. That's how important the kingdom is. Or the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who is searching for the pearl of great price, and once he finds that pearl, he sells everything that he has in order to obtain it. My dear friends, what are we willing to do in order to fully embrace the kingdom of heaven? What are we willing to do in order to fully embrace that relationship with our God? Because you see, my dear friends, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, is worth more than any material things that we have, anything that we can store in our quote-unquote barns. It's worth more, my dear friends, than our investment portfolios. It's worth more than our degrees and our pedigrees and even our IQs. It is the glory and the grandeur of God's kingdom. And to really appreciate this analogy that Jesus is using, my dear friends, we need to understand something about the kingdom. What is Jesus referring to when he speaks about the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God? And by understanding, my dear friends, just a glimpse and glimmer of the kingdom, then you and I should be motivated to do everything in our lives to embrace that kingdom, to live within that kingdom, and to allow that kingdom to be fostered every place that we go as disciples of the Lord Jesus. First thing that we have to understand, my dear friends, and it's an important point, and that is this the kingdom of God is a present reality. The kingdom of God is a present reality. It's one of those realities, my dear friends, that we could say of the kingdom of God, it is already here, but it's not yet. Because certainly the fullness of the kingdom is not going to happen until the end of time. When the Lord Jesus comes to judge the living and the dead. The fullness of the kingdom for us is not going to happen until we see Jesus face to face on the last day that we leave this earthly journey. But I think many times we forget that while we're focused on the kingdom of God as that is which is to come, that every single day the kingdom of God is a reality in our lives. In fact, my brothers and sisters, there are 27 times in the four gospels that Jesus refers to either the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. He's referring to the same thing. Of those 27 times, 18 times, he is inferring something that is already here, that is already present, that is already amongst us. 18 times. In fact, one of the most direct ways he does it is in St. Luke's gospel. When the Pharisees ask him, When is the kingdom of God going to come? And Jesus says, the kingdom of God is not one of those things where you say, Look, there it is, or look, here it comes. But what does he say to them? The kingdom of God is among us. The kingdom of God is within you, depending upon the translation. The kingdom of God is a living reality. You see, my dear friends, anywhere there is God, there is the kingdom. And there is nowhere on this earth, there's no mountain too high or valley too low where God is not present. So wherever there is God, there is the kingdom. And wherever there is God in the kingdom, there's a little slice of heaven. And if that is true and we really believe it, my dear friends, do we live our life joyfully? Are we joyful missionary disciples of the Lord Jesus? Because every day the Lord is asking us to help usher in the kingdom, to embrace the joy of the kingdom. Do we operate out of a spirit of abundance or do we operate out of a spirit of scarcity? Are we truly joyful? Or do we fall into that negativity, my dear friends, that often permeates our society? Rather than looking at our blessings, rather than looking at everything the Lord has done for us, we always see the negative side. We always focus on the negative rather than focusing on the abundant. It's sort of like the old story of the farmer. One day there was a farmer who would always complain about his crop. And he would complain because this year the weather wasn't very good, it was too hot, not enough rain, too rainy, or the insects were bad this year, or the market prices for the crop were very low. But one year, one year every factor came into alignment. The weather was perfect. There were no insects. The market price for the crop was as high as it had ever been in his life. And so his neighbor came over to him one day, who was a fellow farmer, and said, You must be some excited. This is your best year. And the old farmer kind of looked at him and said, Well, you know, I had a bumper crop. But you know what the problem is with a bumper crop? It really exhausts the soil. Now the soil's used all its nutrients. My brothers and sisters, sometimes we're like that. The Lord's given us all these blessings, the kingdom is manifested all around us, and we're focused on the little soil right here. And sometimes I think we just want to make things up to complain about. The kingdom of God is a present reality. Do we embrace the kingdom with joy? And do we understand, my dear friends, that if we do, it changes our entire life and our entire outlook as how we live out our call to discipleship. That's the first thing. The second thing to remember is this the kingdom of God is not only a present reality, but the kingdom of God is a precious relationship. It is a precious relationship. The Lord Jesus desires to have a relationship with each and every one of us. He wants to have a friendship with each and every one of us. We do not have a God that is distant, that is out there somewhere. The word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us. The Lord Jesus becomes present to us on this altar at every Eucharist. Do we recognize and we do we desire to have a precious relationship with him? Because oftentimes, my dear friends, I think we've fallen to this notion that sort of God is the great scorekeeper, and the Lord is just up there with his big ledger book, giving checks and X's. And sometimes that's how we live our life. I just need to hit all these checks, but check boxes. And if I can get if I can hit all the boxes, then I can make it to the pearly gates on the last day. I can collect my $200 in heavenly cash and make it in. But my dear friends, the Lord is not concerned about check boxes. The Lord's concerned about a relationship. The Lord's concerned that we come on Sunday to his house not just to fulfill an obligation because we have to, but because we love the Lord and we desire to be with the Lord. That's the difference. And that friendship, that relationship, my dear friends, is with the Lord and it's also with one another. That's why we are the family of God. Because we're called to be in relationship with God in the kingdom, and we're called to be in relationship with one another, to support one another, to walk with one another. That's why the mission of Mary Queen of Peace, when we had the meeting Thursday night, I told ministry leaders, everyone needs to memorize the mission because one day I'm gonna come out into the congregation, I'm gonna call on you. And I'm gonna say, What is the mission? And if you get it wrong, not only you're gonna embarrass yourself, you're gonna embarrass me. The mission is to foster life-changing encounters with Jesus. It's about the relationship, the encounter. The Lord wants to encounter us. That's the second thing about the kingdom. It's a present reality, it is a precious relationship. And the third thing to remember, my dear friends, is this the culture of the kingdom is very different than the culture of the world. The culture of the kingdom, how God calls us to live, how he calls us to treat one another, is very different than the culture of the world and the society in which we live. And oftentimes those cultures are going to clash. We see it, my dear friends, in just the natural ways when cultures clash. When people of different cultures come together and don't understand different cultural norms. He does a lot of missionary work. And one of his first trips to East Africa on missionary work, he went to this little village, and the people were so happy to see him. And then the leader of the village came to greet him. And he welcomed the deacon. He welcomed him to the community. He said to my friend, who is the deacon, Deacon, we are so glad that you are here. We welcome you to this community. And then he looked at the deacon and he said, Deacon, if I may say so, you are one fat man. And the deacon was like, I didn't know this if he was joking or if he was insulting me. But come to find out, it's a cultural difference. In East Africa, to call someone fat is a compliment. It means you have enough prosperity to carry on a little extra weight. You're not suffering from starvation. Don't go around here calling anyone fat. You may get a different reaction. But it's a cultural difference. The same thing with the kingdom. The culture of the kingdom is different than the culture of the world. And we have to desire, my dear friends, to live that culture out, those values out, the call of the gospel out. So that the kingdom of heaven may be more and more a reality every single day. My dear friends, wherever God is, there is the kingdom. And wherever God is and the kingdom is, there's a little slice of heaven. May we never take our eyes off of Jesus, my dear friends. And may we always thank God that we are kingdom people and that we're called to usher in that kingdom every single day of our lives. Amen.