We've been spending a few weeks in Matthew chapter 13, getting toward the end of it, talking about these parables, these kingdom parables is what they're called.
And what we've been saying is that the kingdom of God is about God's power entering the world.
And so it's about the forgiveness of sins, the relief of condemnation, the relief of shame.
But it's also a few weeks ago we talked about that.
It's also about God making all things right.
But in all of this, this is about what does it mean for God to reign in you?
You know, we say things like, I just want God to take control of my life.
Like, what does that mean?
We say it, but what does that mean?
And what would that look like?
What does it really mean for God to be in control of my life?
So the text this week, we have two parables.
We have the parable of the treasure, and then we have the parable of the pearl.
And so the first one, uh, Sam just read it, Matthew 13, uh, verse 44, the kingdom of heaven.
So the kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field.
So the kingdom's like the treasure which a man found and covered up, then in his joy, so he's compelled, then in his joy he goes and he sells all that he has and he buys that field.
So in ancient time, money was a medium of exchange, but it wasn't something that you would um, it wasn't like capital, you know, it wasn't capital that you would go and invest.
And so it wasn't it wasn't even something that you would put in a bank.
And so if you if you had money, if you had a a bit extra, you would have you would form a treasure.
I mean, you would put it in a jar, you would buy some jewels and put them in a chest, and you would bury it or hide it.
This is what you did with your extra uh currency, your extra money.
And so, you know, every once in a while, just like do you remember the story a few years ago, the lady hides the million dollars in her mattress, and then her children don't know it and throw the mattress away?
Do you ever remember that?
I have a friend who um when she went out of town, she would hide her wedding ring, but she didn't want to take it out of town in case she lost it.
I don't know why you're more likely to lose it out of town, but apparently she thought that.
Uh, she would hide it in the bottom of her trash can because that's the last place a robber would look.
Well, you I mean, you know how that story ends, right?
I mean, you forget it's there and you throw the trash away when you get home.
So, but this is what people do.
They would hide their treasure.
They wouldn't put it into uh, you know, a vault in the bank.
They wouldn't invest in the stock market.
If they had extra, they hid it.
So it's possible every once in a while, because lands get ravaged and there's these wars and people die and people don't communicate where the treasure is, it's possible every once in a while that there's treasure left over on some land.
And in this story, we get this guy who's seemingly extordinary.
Just a guy.
He doesn't seem to be incredibly poor, he doesn't seem to be incredibly wealthy.
Uh he's just an ordinary guy, and he is looking at some land, and he finds a treasure.
I mean, he maybe maybe it's a jar of gold, coins, maybe it's some jewels, but he finds it, and you can imagine that moment.
I mean, his heart pounding is looking around, like, is anybody else seeing this?
And what do I do?
Because here's the thing he has found the treasure of his life, and yet he has no right to it.
So he says, Well, he thinks to himself, how do I get right?
So I have to become the legal owner, because even we can read in some rabbinical law at the time that even if he had stolen it, like it'd almost like he would have found he would have been found out, and if he would have been found out that a workman who stumbled upon a treasure, the treasure would go back to his master.
So the only way for him is to become the legal owner.
And now here there's probably some shadiness, right?
You're going like, this seems a little shady.
Like, you know, there's tre there's treasure on the land, and then you hide it, and then you go buy it.
Like, but is there, should you tell the owner about the treasure?
But the point of the parable is not the morality of the hiding.
The point of parables, and usually there's kind of one main point.
The point of the parable is the treasure.
It's all about the worth of the treasure.
Something so incredible that in joy he goes off and he sells everything.
So I just got a series of questions I've been wrestling with this week.
And the first one is this why is this kingdom so valuable?
Like, why is the kingdom of God in your life so valuable?
Maybe you've been in church so much that you just stopped asking that question.
But for some of us, you look around at other Christians and you see the level of anxiety or fear, insecurity, or judgment in them, and you're going, well, I'm not quite sure if it's that valuable, according to observations.
Or maybe you're like me and you look around and you see the amount of brokenness in this world, the amount of brokenness in a church, the amount of brokenness in different places, and you see all this brokenness, you go, I'm not quite sure if it's this valuable.
I'm looking at the condition of places and people groups and what's going on.
I'm looking at my own condition.
I'm not sure how valuable this is.
And yet, the only way it's possible for us to know anything is broken is if we have some concept that there is wholeness and goodness.
Right?
I mean, the only way we can even know something's broken and have a feeling like this is broken and this is messed up is if there's some idea, some truth that there is wholeness and goodness.
And our hearts pick up on this.
But what we do is we set off to be our own king.
To set our own agendas.
We're gonna fix the brokenness in ourselves or in our families or in the church or in the world.
And so what we do is we set off to be our own king.
The brokenness in myself.
I will satisfy it, I will fix it, and I'm gonna fix it with some things or some deeds or some worth that I'm just gonna earn, or maybe some religious morality.
I'm gonna fix it with that.
I'll be my own king, I'll form my own kingdom.
And this is where we get into Isaiah 40, verse 3, because it's talking about God as king and the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight, and the desert a highway for our God.
So this is speaking about God as king because this is what I learned this week.
When a king would come back in these times, when a king would come, they would build roads.
They would build whatever they had to build to make his path straight.
So I I've only met like one king, and it was like this king of a village in uh Africa.
I've only been Africa one time, and it was years ago.
I was in college and I went with a group and we were doing some work in this village.
Well, to come into this to this village and gone to Africa to come in, everything had to go through the king.
Like everything had to go through this one guy.
He held the authority, and it's this little village out in the middle of nowhere.
I I don't think, I think it was like a a white person had not been in that village in decades.
I mean, you know, so everybody wants to touch your skin and look at you and you know, see that you're like they are, you know.
And so we're walking in and we go and we sit in this this hut, this mud hut, and it was way too small for the amount of people in there.
It's like 30 people slammed in there on these little stools, and it is hot, it is dark, it is it is middle of the day Africa, and you are in this hut with no lights, and it's hot and it's uncomfortable, and everybody has a little mini sermon as they go around for these introductions, right?
And here we go.
It is my worst nightmare as I'm sitting in there because this thing, it's it's like the never-ending church service.
It won't end.
And you're just like, I just want out, please get me out of here.
And what's real clear in all this is there's one guy in charge.
Like one guy, one guy gets the vote here of whether we come in to do any work or not.
And when he moves, people move.
Everything runs through his authority.
Now, I don't know if that guy was a good king.
Perhaps he was.
He let us in and we did some good work in that village.
But what's clear is that a good king removes barriers.
Right?
A good leader removes barriers.
A good small group leader removes barriers, so there's discussion.
A good president removes barriers, a good dad removes barriers.
I mean, a good king removes barriers.
So listen to verse 4 in that Isaiah chapter 40.
Every valley shall be lifted up.
So here comes God, he's coming in, he's got his road is straight.
Here he comes, he's coming in, and here's what's going on.
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be made low, the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
So this is symbolic that this king, his kingdom removes every barrier.
And he makes impossible mountains low and depressing, valleys, he raises them.
And in this, is there not some realization for us and how we like to be our own kings?
And how we try to endlessly climb mountains, trying to be more and more righteous to secure our position before God, and how we often live in valleys of shame and guilt where there's forgiveness for that.
And what we see is we see that God has taken the mountain of righteousness that we cannot live up to, and he has conquered it, so he has made it low for us, and that valley of shame and condemnation that we so often live in, that he has come in and in his forgiveness, he has brought that up for us so that we can live.
Not endlessly tired and weary.
And we're just fighting, right?
We're fighting because we're trying to rule our own kingdoms, whether it be the kingdom of worth or the kingdom of righteousness, this is what we do.
This is sin.
This is sin under the sin, right?
Like we might talk about sin as you know, speaking and saying something horrible or impatience or um, you know, something, you know, and we could really go to like drugs and sex and rock and roll.
I mean, we could do some typical sins that people like to talk about or whatever.
But underneath any sin, any behavioral sin, underneath it, this is what we're talking about.
We're talking about that uh the fact that we like to rule our own kingdoms.
We like to be our own king, our own deliverer.
That's the sin under the sin.
That's the stuff that affects and fuels any of the behaviors of sin.
So what are we to do?
Well, I'd I would imagine maybe you're exhausted for climbing and for living in valleys of shame.
Here's what the parable says to do it says you've stumbled upon an absolute treasure.
I mean, something that could redefine your life.
It says for you to sell everything to be done.
In his joy, he goes and he sells all he has.
Listen, listen, here's what it is.
You sell the attempt to rule.
This is all you really have.
Like underneath the things and the deeds and the stuff, and even your love for the stuff, underneath all of that is the attempt to rule, to be your own king.
And making yourself your own king crushes you.
So sell off the attempt to rule, and you will have nothing.
And in your nothingness, you will now have enough to buy the treasure.
Nothing else can buy the treasure except liquidating your attempt to rule.
Maybe you're saying, well, that's you're being too metaphoric.
What are you talking about?
Here's what I'm talking about.
Humble yourself and let go.
I don't know if that's an epiphany for you or a confession or walk an aisle or just pray or weep.
I don't know, I don't know what that is for you, but it's a humbling of yourself before the king of the universe and the one who wants to be the king of your life, so you're not crushed endlessly trying to climb mountains and live in valleys.
And that we need outside help, right?
That's what the king does, is he provides outside help.
And for us, that's the work of his son of Jesus for us.
So we're made righteous, and so we're his beloved, and we don't have to form this work ourselves.
And it's so tiring to be and rule our own kingdom, and we don't have to.
There's a kingdom that can live in us.
So if we jump down to verses 10 and 11 in Isaiah 40, behold, the Lord comes with might and his arm rules with him.
Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense, that's a big word, his recompense before him.
That means his compensation.
What is needed to make things right?
He brings that.
Don't you love that?
We don't have to bring it.
He brings that because that's his work.
That's the work of his son.
He brings that.
And then verse 11.
So you get all this power and you get this might in verse 10, and then verse 11, he will tend his flock like a shepherd.
He will gather the lambs in his arms.
He will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young.
So he's sovereign, he's lord, he's armed, he's powerful, but that arm is tending like a shepherd.
This is the king.
A savior king, a shepherd king.
Verse 10, it says his reward is with him.
What's his reward?
What's the reward of the king of the universe, the treasure of the universe?
Well, last Christmas, Christy and I thought we had finally figured out the perfect gift for her dad.
Because it's this constant riddle.
What do you get the guy who buys anything that he wants?
Right?
He buys anything that he wants, he just goes and buys it.
So what do we get him?
So you have to think of something before he thinks of something.
That's the only way a gift with him works.
Because there's nothing that he hasn't thought of.
If he's thinking of it, he gets it.
So finally we go, oh, he has a sweet tooth.
And we find out about this bakery in Jacksonville, Florida.
It has these incredible cookies, unbelievable, ridiculously good cookies.
We're like, no way he knows about the cookies.
And he doesn't know about the cookies.
Not the point of the story.
He doesn't know about these cookies.
He has a sweet tooth.
And so we order these cookies.
And we're like, this is it.
Like, we're finally, we have found it.
And so we give Christmas Eve, we give him the cookies, and he's like, oh, these are fantastic, and we explain.
You keep them in the freezer, and then just you heat up the ones you want, and man, they're huge and unbelievable, they're incredible.
And we bake a few that night, and they're awesome, and everybody's, you know, we're so proud of ourselves.
And you know, it's just a few months later, I'm I'm in the fridge over there, and I open the freezer.
And they're still there.
You know, and I I think probably it's not him being rude.
It's just, it's just, you know, sometimes you don't want to bother to turn on the oven and stick the cookies in, or you forget about them, or whatever, and you're just like, like, what is it?
What do we give him?
What could we, what can we give him?
And then a couple weeks ago, we were over there and we're swimming and we're cooking out, and all the grandkids are there, so there's like nine grandkids swimming, and then we're all hanging out, and all of us kids are all talking around a table.
And he's just sort of sitting off to the side at one point.
I kind of look over at him, and he is sitting over there, nobody's around him, nobody's talking to him, and he is so happy.
It's us.
That's the reward.
See, we are his reward.
I mean, in that verse 10, that his reward, the king of the universe that has everything and he's mighty and powerful.
I mean, it's like, like, what could possibly be his reward?
Well, it's it's us.
Broken down, imperfect, messy us.
And the reason why we can be his reward is because his recompense is before him.
So he provides the way in which we can be his reward.
Maybe you're here and just get tired, right?
Like, do you ever get tired of climbing those mountains and living in those valleys?
What I love saying every week is that Jesus on the cross is enough.
He he fills that valley.
He climbed that mountain.
This is what the great British preacher, Martin Lloyd Jones, uh uh, he called this the double payment, right?
That is forgiveness and acceptance.
It's not forgiveness and go and live a good life.
It is forgiveness and acceptance.
You're fully forgiven and fully accepted.
Now, that will compel you to go and live a life that honors the Lord, but it is double payment.
The work of Jesus is double payment that he fills the valley and he lowers the mountain.
There was a day I didn't get this, and I was all bound up.
I got the full, fully forgiven part, but I didn't get the fully accepted part.
And so I was fully forgiven, but I worked for my acceptance.
Right?
And what I was doing, climbing a mountain, I was self-coronation.
That's all it was.
In my pride, I was coronating myself over and over and over and over again.
Crowning myself on each day to be king again and again and again and again.
You and I, we are not fit to rule our own kingdoms.
We're not meant to.
And accepting this kingdom that is at work in you through God's Spirit, through the Holy Spirit that reigns in you, wants to speak to you, whisper things to you, empower you to live in this way in your nothingness, it doesn't mean everything will be perfect.
I can't promise that, but what it does mean is that the crushing weight begins to go away.
That some freedom begins to happen.
Some fruit begins to appear.
Sell the attempt to rule.
This brings us to the second parable, uh, Matthew 13, 45 and 46.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls.
So in the first one, it was interesting.
The first parable, it said that the kingdom of heaven was like the treasure, but here it says the kingdom of heaven is like the merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and he bought it.
So you usually hear what you hear taught, and you can go on to continue to believe this, you don't have to accept the next five to seven minutes of what I say.
Usually what you hear is you hear that this is a repetition of the first parable.
And that again, the kingdom is the pearl, and we need to sell everything to buy the pearl, but what if Jesus switched it?
What if the kingdom is the merchant?
And what if God's reign and control and movement in our lives is the merchant?
And what if we are the great pearl?
Now, pearls back then they had huge value.
They were looked at with better value than they are today, in terms of like jewels.
I mean, Cleopatra had a pearl that was worth four billion dollars in today's money.
I mean, this was a value that we would never value pearls today had they valued pearls then.
And he sells all he has because when he looks at you, he says, You, my dear, are an incredible pearl.
And then you have to wonder like, what if we stopped looking at ourselves through the eyes of the kingdom of the world?
Constantly evaluating ourselves and judging ourselves?
And what if we looked at ourselves through the eyes of God?
What if we looked at ourselves through the eyes of the whispering of the Holy Spirit in us in the kingdom of God?
Declaring that double payment to you?
So your business is failing, or you feel like a failure, your body is failing, or your friends are failing, you just aren't what you once were, or you aren't becoming what you thought you would be, or the thing's not working out.
But what if you are the pearl?
And that spirit is in us and saying, I see you and I love you, I know you and I love you.
That work on the cross is enough for you.
Double payment, forgiveness, and acceptance.
That's an incredible treasure.
So the same thing happens pretty much every day for me.
In the morning, I walk across my backyard, I go up the stairs above my garage, and that's where I work.
And so in the morning, I don't have to turn the lights on.
The sun comes in the side window, and so it lights up the whole room, and I don't turn the lights on.
I've never really noticed it until this week.
And so all morning I work without the lights on.
I can read, I can do all my work.
And then I go to lunch.
And so I go out to lunch with somebody, grab lunch, we talk, come back.
I come back, sit back down, I start to work again.
And the sun's moved.
And now I need the light on, but I'm I'm a moron, and I think I'm fine.
I can still read.
You know, and you're getting closer and closer, you're trying to write something down, and but but you know, I and I just don't want to get up.
I don't want to get up and take those like three steps over to the light switch, and I just keep telling myself, like, I'm fine, I don't need to get up and turn the light on.
And and for a really long period of time, every day I do this, this silly effort.
And all I need to do is sell off the attempt, right?
Sell off this attempt.
Just be done with it.
And I need to get up and I need to walk over to the light switch, and I need to flip it on.
And my act of switching it on has no power.
Nor does the switch have power.
The power is already there.
The thing that helps turn it on is my nothingness.
And that's because I receive it.
The work of Jesus for you is a profound treasure.
The voice of the Spirit in you is a profound treasure.
Will you trust in it?
Will you rest in it?
Will you rest in the work done for you?
May you sell off the attempt to rule and may you see yourself through the eyes of the king.
May you live in humility and joy where the valleys are raised and the mountains are lowered.
Let's pray together.
God, thank you that you are enough and you are an incredible treasure.
That if we have shifted faith from ourselves to faith in you, your kingdom reigns in us, your spirit lives in us.
Would you help us to trust in the work of Jesus more?
Would you help us to listen to the guiding voice of your spirit?
Would you help us to know more this reality of the double payment that you have paid the price for us to be forgiven and you have paid the price for us to be fully accepted?
Would you forgive us of our pride that fuels our attempt to rule?
And would we become nothing in a greater way, so that we might know freedom and might know you deeper and deeper.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.