Local Church Camp - Session Four

In the final session, Nadia explores the parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl, revealing the kingdom of God as the one thing truly worth everything. With honesty and clarity, this message calls us to daily repentance—not as guilt, but as a joyful reorientation of our lives—challenging us to move beyond convenience and place Jesus back at the centre of everything we do.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Alright, let's dive into our word. Over this camp, Levi has spoken about Jesus' invitation. Repent for the kingdom has come near. And what I want to do is kind of I want to jump into some of the scripture that's previous to Jesus saying this and post Jesus saying this. It's all within the same context, all within the same, just verse after verse after verse. But as I was preparing this message, I found it really interesting what takes place before and after he says, repent for the kingdom has come near, especially in relation to what I'm going to talk to you about today, which is about the treasure and the fine pearls. And so Matthew 4, verse 8 to 20, if you've been in church, you would have heard the message about Jesus being in the desert, being tempted. And so we're kind of finishing there before he goes out and he starts to preach. And so Matthew 8, uh Matthew 4, 8 to 20 says, Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said, All this I will give to you, he said, if you will fall down and worship me. Away from me, Satan, Jesus told him, for it is written, and this is kind of the key part that I I guess I just want you to mull over throughout this message. Um, Jesus r responded and said, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Then the devil left him, and angels came and ministered to him. And this is where Jesus begins his ministry. Verse 12, it says, When Jesus heard that John had been imprisoned, he withdrew to Galilee, leaving Nazareth. He went and he lived in Capernaum, which is by the sea in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, to fulfill what the spoken what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. And really quickly, just for um our new Christians and I guess our young people, I want to just um take note of this because this is really special. It's one of those moments where we're about to read a prophetic word from Isaiah, from the Old Testament, that is talking about what Jesus would do in the New Testament, highlighting to us the fulfilling of those prophecies. And I think that's important to know because that's just so exciting as you start to read this, you're reading it through that context of the fact that this is a prophecy from ages ago, and now Jesus is fulfilling that prophecy. Off the top of their head, any Bible scholars in here know how many prophecies, how many prophetic words Jesus followed through with? It's in the hundreds, I know. I think it's less than 2,000, which is a lot. So there were that many prophetic words about Jesus, specific things that he would do. He fulfilled all of them. And so this is one of those. And so it says to fulfill. So Jesus moved here to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah, and it says this land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, essentially where Jesus has moved. The people living in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. And from that time on, Jesus began to preach. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. And I just love that picture as well. So I'm bringing you right into the way that my brain works. But I love that picture because physically we we know that Jesus has moved to this place. But I always like to um think about what's happening spiritually as well. Like we've come here, and physically we've come here to meet with the Lord, but there's been so much taking place in the supernatural for this to happen. And so here it's saying, Yep, Jesus moved here, and for those who are living in the darkness, they have seen a great light. A great light has come to them. And that light is Jesus. And now we're back at that scripture that we are sitting on at the moment, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is come near. So that's the first part that happens. But then after that, I find it interesting what takes place there too, because it's the calling of his first disciples. And this is just verse after verse. I'm not jumping around the Bible at the moment. Says in verse 18, as Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. And at once they left their nets and followed him. A moment where the invitation that Jesus is presenting, the kingdom that Jesus is presenting to them, is so compelling that these fishermen who are fishing out on their boat leave what they're doing and they immediately follow Jesus. Repent. The word Jesus uses repent, Levi mentioned yesterday, is metanoia. Metanoia. And often those words mean so many things. We kind of like bring it to just mean repent. But the word metanoia means to change your mind, to turn around, to reorientate your whole way of thinking and living. We can think repentance is just saying sorry for our sins, but what we're learning here is that repentance isn't just a feeling, it's an action. And so it's turning towards something. Repentance is saying I've been heading in one direction my whole life, and now I'm choosing to turn towards another way of living. It's a change of direction, not just feeling. It's repentance is not I feel bad about what I did. It is I'm choosing a new way to live. Repentance is not God is angry with me, it is God is inviting me into something bigger and better. Jesus says, repent, the kingdom is near, not because we are awful, but because there's something better that is within reach. Repentance is in my mind is like turning in small daily ways. That's what we've been talking about. We've been talking about what does it actually look like to turn towards the kingdom? What does it look like to be a Christian living in our day-to-day? What does it look like being a Christian, living in our school, being a Christian in our sports teams, being a Christian in our workplace? And I think this whole idea of repentance and turning in small ways day to day, it kind of looks like what we were talking about just a moment ago. God, I've been snapping at my kids, but I'm turning back to patience. God, I've been numbing the feelings instead of dealing with my pain, and I'm turning back to honesty with myself. God, I've been living anxious and controlling, and I'm turning back to trusting you. God, I've been withholding forgiveness, and I'm turning back towards mercy. Repentance isn't just this moment that we have, but it's these daily decisions that we are making. God, I've been putting my comfort first and I'm turning back to your way of love. Repentance, simply put, is choosing kingdom ways over our default daily ways. But I guess the question we're trying to answer at this camp and throughout this year is what are we turning towards when we repent? I've kind of given a whole bunch of examples, but what is this kingdom actually like? And that's why these parables are so important, is because they're helping us to get a picture of what we are turning towards as we daily repent, slash as we daily choose a different direction, choose a new way of living, it explains to us what we're turning towards. And in Matthew 13, 44 to 46, we learn another little key, a lot another little parable of what it is that we're turning towards from Jesus. He says, 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 he bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and he bought it. And I think it's fitting that when Jesus spoke of the kingdom being near, he sandwiches that with those two stories, those two contexts that I gave us today. Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. And then at once they left their nets and they followed him. Why? He's trying to help us understand that the kingdom is the one thing that is worth everything. The kingdom is the one thing that is absolutely worth everything. Have you ever bought something you thought was great or a great deal, only to realize later that it was really bad? Or that you paid way too much for it? Might be like a car, you got it and you're fizzing over it, and then you're driving it for a while, take it in for a waff, and realize that you absolutely just got run over by whoever sold it to you. It might be that you have purchased something because you just thought it was a good idea at the time. I've done that. I feel like we've all done that. Late at night, you're sitting there on Facebook Marketplace, and then something pops up and you're like, yep, I really need that. Might be like a rowing machine. I feel like the rowing machine is the classic example. It's like such a niche thing, but I think we all think we'd be good at it and that it would be fun. And so we we jump on Facebook Marketplace and we buy it, thinking that this is going to be really valuable, it's going to be great for our lives. Actually, babe, all I've needed this whole time is a rowing machine. And so we get a rowing machine and then it just sits in our garage. For some of you, you've still got things sitting in your garage that you thought was a good idea to buy that you have never used. That reformer, why have you still got it? The the maybe you were like, man, I don't really like having to go outside to exercise, but if I had a stationary bike, that would be great. And that stationary bike has sat in your garage doing nothing. Seemed like a good idea at the time. We've all done it, we've all made those purchases in life. But every now and then, every now and then, you come across something that's the opposite. Something that's so valuable. You may not have realized it at the start, but it's so valuable that it's worth rearranging everything you have. I know I go on about it, but my marble table, oh, I love that thing. And uh I bought that for 300 bucks from Facebook Marketplace in Montreal, but at the time I had no money, and so I was like, I'm gonna sell my table and my chairs, and I'm gonna buy this table. And then I managed to convince Levi that we were gonna drive through to Montreal, pick up this random as, and this was a marble table before, like I'm I'm trying to make myself sound awesome, but I'm assuring you, this was a marble table before marble tables were cool, okay? And so I'm like, Levi, we're gonna go through and get this marble table, but she said it takes like five people to carry, and so we just finangle, I think we like hired higher hubbies in Montreal to come and help us, but this one guy showed up and he wasn't very big, and I was like, oh no. And I thought, well, maybe we're picking it up off someone who can help us, and we get there, and the person opens the door, she's this little old Italian lady, and I'm like, all right, we're doing this, and we almost dropped it a few times. And anyway, we managed to get it back. Levi's literally checking the tire pressure on our car. That's how heavy it was. But after about a year or so, we had got it inside the house, and um, my friend who's an interior decorator, she said to me, Um, have you ever looked up like whether this table is designer or like how much it would be worth today? And I said, Oh, no, I haven't. And she said, Oh, jump on this um website, First Dibs. That's where these kind of things are on. So I jump on, and I'm no word of a lie. I find my table that I paid 300 bucks for. That was a real mission to get, and I had to sell my other table and my other chairs and convince my husband to go and get and get a little small hire a hubby dude who was useless. But um, I'm I'm I'm not kidding. I look on there, and this table that I have is worth 32,000 USD dollars, and that is why we brought it with us all the way from Canada and is now sitting in our house. But it was amazing, it wasn't like that purchase that you make that you're like, oh darn it. It was that moment where I was like, oh my gosh, this is the most valuable thing I now own. And Jesus, oh, you know, I th you know what I think about? Antiques roadshow. Why is that so compelling to us, eh? We're sitting there watching people find things in their attic and we're fizzing over it. It's like they can they bring it out and they're like, oh, I found this little thing from my grandmother. They pull it out and they're like, Yes, well, that is worth three million dollars, and you're just like, ah, you know, celebrating with your cup of tea because you think you're English. It's just so good. But Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like that. It's the one thing worth everything. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. Two short stories, but the same message and one big invitation. The one thing worth everything. So I just want to share a few thoughts that I um see in these parables and then kind of talk about how we can apply it to our lives. Is that cool? So the first thing that I see is that the kingdom is something you discover. The kingdom is something that you discover. It's not something that we can manufacture, it's something that's discovered. In both stories, someone finds something, right? In both stories, someone finds something. One stumbles across treasure in a field, the other has been searching for fine pearls his whole life, and then he finds the one. And I love that God does this because this should resonate with our story as well. For some of us, faith started like the hidden treasure. We weren't even looking, we just kind of found ourselves confronted by Jesus, and something grabbed at our heart. We weren't necessarily looking for it, but we discovered it. And then for others, it's like the pearl. We were searching, looking, looking for peace, looking for something solid, and one day we realized this is it. This is what I've been looking for. Different stories, but the same discovery. My story was like that of the treasure in the field. Um, and I was actually in a field when it when this happened. I'd moved in with my brother, my older brother, when I was about 13. Um, and he was a Christian, he was Levi's youth pastor. That's how Levi and I met. I first met Levi when I was about nine at my brother's graduation, and then after that moved in with my brother, and um it was weird going to church. I was not looking for God. I certainly was not the man like the pearls looking for this great treasure. My brother was trying to convince me to get along to church because I was up to no good. And he was like, You gotta come to church, and I'd go to church, and it was quite similar to this kind of vibe, except there were um couches everywhere, there were a few weird people doing capoeira in worship, and honestly, they looked possessed, but that's alright, that's the story for another time. And they'd hand along like hot bread, that was nice, I loved the hot bread, but it was just a bizarre situation. And for this um Stokes Valley girl who had not experienced anything like that walking into this church, I was like, You guys are you guys are weird, like you're all cooked, and I'm the only normal one who's here, and so it took me a long time to even be open to it. I wasn't like the person searching, looking for meaning. I was the one who stumbled across treasure in a field, and it happened, and we all remember that moment that it happened to us, right? It happened, I was sitting down on the field outside my house, and I was just having a teenage girl moment. I was feeling really alone. I had come out of um quite a impoverished um home and then moved in with my brother, who was becoming a lawyer, and it was bizarre. I wasn't used to there being more than three towels in the house. You know, you were always having to search for a towel, like to find, and usually if you found a towel, it was kind of wet or it was dirty, and then all of a sudden I was in this home where the wife was making cheesecake, and you know that at night I was going in there stealing that because that's what you did. You needed to make sure that you got some food, and so moving into this situation was like such a jarring social experiment for me, and then my mum moved back to Todonga to look after my nan, and so I was just left here with these weird ass Christians with cheesecake, which was the bonus. But I sat there on that field that day and I just was like, man, I feel really alone, and this kind of sucks, and I don't really want to be here, and I don't really like my brother, and um, yeah, lame. And all of a sudden, I just felt the weight of something, and it was like, what the heck is going on here? And I sat there, and because I'd heard little snippets from going along to church, I'd I'd heard about Jesus, I'd heard about the Holy Spirit, heard about God the Father, and I just had this moment where I was sitting there and I felt the presence of God, and I think um probably as well being a Maori, you're usually aware of this spiritual stuff. So I was very um attuned to the fact that something was happening, and I felt like the Holy Spirit spoke to me and basically said, Um, you're never alone. I've always been here, I've always been with you. And um I remembered this poem that I'd seen up on a door, uh Footprints in the Sand. Do you know that? Put your hand up if you know the footprints in the sand. And I was like, Are you the guy from Footprints in the Sand? And I wrote down in my journal that moment, and I just wrote, Nice to meet you, Holy Spirit. And that was my moment. That was the day that I discovered treasure in a field, and you know what I did? I went away and I changed my entire life, and I've been living out of that revelation ever since. Why? Because it's the one thing that is worth everything. Um, the second thing I see in this scripture is the kingdom reorders your life. Both people in the parables do something wild, they sell everything to get the one thing, and this is not Jesus saying um go and sell all of your stuff. This is Jesus saying the kingdom becomes the center that everything else is arranged around. Before the treasure, the field was just a field. After the treasure, the field became everything. Before the pearl, the merchant had lots of good pearls. After finding the one, everything else changed value. This is what happens in the kingdom because the kingdom becomes real to us. Not God is a part of my life, but God becomes the center of my life. Not I add Jesus to my already busy world, but I rearrange my world around Jesus. And this, I believe, for all of us, I think I'm speaking for all of us, this is the real tension of our Christian day to day lives in our day and time. Most of us don't struggle with whether God is real, we actually struggle with whether. Whether or not he sits at the center of our lives. We sing songs like Jesus at the center of it all. Eh? We feel so good standing there, Jesus at the center of it all. But if we were honest with ourselves, truly honest with ourselves, you know, if if we get to Monday and we've just come out of Sunday singing Jesus at the center of it all, if we're honest with ourselves, is our Monday showing up to be Jesus at the center of it all? I don't know. It's only a an answer that you can, a question that you can answer. Our lives, in my opinion, and I I speak about myself as well, our lives are often organized around convenience, comfort, security, success, money, keeping everyone happy, staying in control, just getting through the week. And I think that is probably why God implores us to return back to the joy of our salvation and to have that childlike faith is because we get boring. It's like we become Christians and we're so excited and we reorientate our lives because we repent and we turn towards the kingdom. And then because we just go about, when you look at kids and they go outside and they see something amazing, they're just like in wonder and in awe. And we're usually like, oh, that's great. They're like, oh my gosh, look at this thing. And we're like, oh, that's so cool. And we can be like that with God. It's like we discover Him, have that moment where you're not even looking for it, and then boom, the Holy Spirit shows up, and we're like, man, I'm gonna change my life, I'm gonna reorientate everything, and we start to get old in our faith, and then all of a sudden we're like, oh, but is it convenient? I don't know, it's a bit uncomfortable. You know, I've got other things to think about success, security, Lord, money, and I'm not suggesting that any of those things are bad. I'm just saying, do you really want that at the center of your life? We lose our wonder, and Jesus gently says the kingdom is worth reordering everything for. Not because God wants to take from you, but because he wants to add to you. He knows what leads to life. The third thing I see, which is wild to me, is the response in this parable is joy, not pressure. In his joy, it says he went out and sold all that he has. All that he had. This isn't forced obedience. It's not religious pressure, it isn't guilt-driven sacrifice, it's just joy. And I guess the question is, have we lost our joy in these things? And if we have lost our joy in these things, then perhaps the question is, what is at the center driving your life? And then we're given this beautiful invitation from Jesus that says, repent, for the kingdom is near. It's simply saying to us on a daily basis, yeah, sometimes you put other things at the center. And so he's saying, repent, turn away and turn back towards the kingdom and his way of doing things. This is the heart of kingdom living. We don't follow Jesus because we have to. We follow him because we've seen something better. Forgiveness feels better than bitterness. Peace feels better than dysfunction. Generosity feels better than hoarding and consuming. Obedience feels better than self-protection. Freedom feels better than control. Notice I didn't say easier. It's certainly not easier, but it is better, and it is the kingdom way. So, what does this look like in everyday life? What does it actually look like to live like the kingdom is our treasure? Like that is at the center. That is the way that we are reorientating our lives, and it looks like reordering. It doesn't look like perfection. Reordering your priorities. Kingdom living changes how you spend your time, how you treat people, what you say yes to, what you say no to, how you respond when you're stressed, how you speak when you're hurt, reordering your everyday spaces. The kingdom doesn't just show up in church services or at camp. It shows up in how you speak to your kids, how you treat your partner when you're tired, how you talk about people who annoy you. Ooh, I felt that one. How you handle money, how you carry your responsibilities, how you rest, how you forgive, how you show hospitality. This is what it means to live as people of the kingdom in Altierua, the normal life of a person in the kingdom in 2026. Not perfect, but intentionally centered around Jesus, living like citizens of his kingdom. It's not having an order like God, family, work. It's living out from a revelation, it's living out from the kingdom, being at the center of everything we do and it impacting everything around us. What I love about these parables is how simple they are. No big religious system, no complex rules, just an invitation. And if Rose, you want to come and join me. Just an invitation. Here is something of infinite worth. Will you center your life around it? And that question shouldn't just happen when we discover him, when we had that moment of like, wow, this is amazing. And with that childlike faith, we stand in wonder at the glory and the kindness and the goodness of God. It should be every single day. Repentance is not a bad word, it's a good word, it's an opportunity for us. Every day, man, I'm doing it every day, especially the last few weeks. My goodness, my family have been showing up. Have I been repenting? I feel like I've been repenting like every five minutes lately. Because I want to do this, but I know in my heart that's not what's at the center. I have to turn back, repent, and turn back. Lord, I'm so sorry. I can't do this without you. Help me reorientate my life back to you. Here is something of infinite worth. Will you center your life around it today? And every day. The kingdom doesn't shout, it quietly reveals its value. And the invitation is not give everything up or else. It's if you really see this, you'll want to live it. And this is the part I I kind of really want to learn for us this afternoon. The kingdom of heaven is near now. What I mean by that is the kingdom of heaven is near now. It's near your tired parenting. It's near your messy marriage. You know, we're all here and we're like, yeah, it's amazing, and we're getting to know each other. But man, maybe you argued the whole way here. Maybe you've been arguing every day. And you're like, this is great. I'm just I'm this maybe feels like a bit of a break from having to confront that. But the most amazing thing about this is it says the kingdom of heaven is near. Repent. It's right there. It's now. And I love that because we can have this picture of repentance being linear, time linear, where we repent and then we go about our lives and we make mistake after mistake after mistake, and then we get here and we're like, oh man, I gotta go all the way back there where I last repented. No, no. We might move, but the good thing about God is he always stays close. The kingdom of heaven is near, and so when you turn, he's not over there, he's right here. Now the kingdom of heaven is near right now. He's near your secret struggles, he's near your doubts, near your exhaustion, near your joy. He rejoices with you, he's near your disappointments, near your failures. The kingdom of heaven is near, and we have the beautiful opportunity to allow it to be at the center of our lives, just like this, right here, how we've got worship. And every decision that we make flows out of that. And when we start to go, and we start to kind of end up over here, the good thing is we don't have to go back over there, we just go from here again. And we start to repent and allow it to be at the center of our lives. So I thought that as we close out this camp, we could just take a moment right where we are and just have a moment of honesty with ourselves, and just ask ourselves the question what is currently sitting at the center of my life? And you can either be honest with yourself or not. It really won't make a difference for me. So you do you, Boo? But it might make a difference for you. What is currently sitting at the center of your life? What is organizing your decisions right now? Is it the fact that you've got emails you need to check? Your busyness? You think that's more important than taking this moment with the Lord? What is at the center? Your time, your energy, is it your emotional world? And where might Jesus be inviting you? Remember, he's so gentle. Where might Jesus be inviting you to reorder things? Maybe it's choosing presence over busyness. Maybe it's choosing forgiveness over resentment. Maybe it's choosing trust over control. I really felt that that was a word for some people today. Maybe it's choosing obedience over comfort, choosing to take one small step that you've been avoiding. The good news is that you don't have to fix everything today, but you can take one step of repentance, one step of reorientation. Can I pray for us today? Would you close your eyes? Jesus, we thank you that your kingdom is near. We thank you that you invite us into a better way to live. We don't want to just believe in you, we want to build our lives around you, with you right at the center. Help us to see the true value of your kingdom. Help us to reorder what needs reordering in our lives and in our hearts. And give us the courage to take one step towards your way of life today. We choose you again today, just like you've chosen us every day of our lives. Not out of pressure, but out of joy. In Jesus' name. And every person said Amen. Amen.