This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. Thanks, Russ. Thank you, Lee. Well, we got more stories to be shared this morning, so I'm looking forward to that. I hope you are as well with me. As you know, we are in our fall sermon series called Follow Me, and I wanted to continue that even as though it's Stewardship Sunday. So I picked a passage, as not specifically about Peter, as you know, we've been studying Peter in him in the context of all this. But this was spoken to Peter. Jesus was sharing this with his followers, and so Peter would have been a listener just like you and me listening to the speaking of Jesus here. This parable. Jesus says, come and follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men. And if you remember, as we kind of review here, how this looks and how this works a little bit here, is that we are called to align our lives with Jesus Christ. That's what it means to follow him. You guys are... Oh, I'm sorry. Well, I thought the Earth of Fifth wouldn't have to stay. You guys want to stay? No. My own son is going, no. The Earth of Fifth Grader, she may be dismissed. I apologize. For that. And the rest of you are stuck. So the very power to be it, to be a follower of Jesus Christ, comes and identifying that he is the Christ. Come and putting ourselves in placement to be impacted by his life. And it is only being impacted by following him. Do we have any ability to do what he's called us to do and to have an influence in the world around us? So, remember, these little black bracelets in our vision Sunday, we're talking about being it, our heart and vision, specifically as a church this year was, to make sure we're aligning ourselves to be impacted by Jesus Christ. Now, let me tell you, that could be the end of the story right there. Because if you do that, you don't need to read out a book out there. You don't need to have special counseling. You don't need to have special skills. When you align yourself with the life and power of living God, reveal through his son, Jesus Christ, and through the outpouring of this Holy Spirit, you're set. You're good to go. That's why the church 2000 years ago didn't need any extra outside help to be the church, to make an impact, to literally spread the gospel as we are living fruit of it today around the world as it continues to go. So, as we were reminded of that, and as we look at that here, the text we look at this morning reveals that only when we see him as the treasure that he is, well, our lives be really impacted. Well, we really align ourselves. When we discover the truth that he is worth everything, that's the key point for this morning, that could be the key point for every sermon I would ever preach. But if you're tracking with the insert here of Bulletin, you want to follow along with that, that's where we're going, that's where we're at. This fall, as we continue through that here, we're going to be continuing on packaging that. But we look at this parable that Jesus gives here today, and he says, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hit it again. And then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. I want to make a few observations this morning with a few applications as we look at that in more detail here. First is this. As we look at the kingdom of heaven, it's like a treasure in the field. The first thing I want us to see here. Look at this observation. It can easily be missed, but discovering it is realizing that it is more valuable than anything else. It can easily be missed, but discovering it is to realize that it is more valuable than anything else. First, he talks about inventions or implies that this treasure is hidden. This treasure is in a field. This treasure is not necessarily something you're going to stumble across on your own. The scripture has supported that. Jesus in the Sermon of the Mount, Matthew 7, he says this. He says, enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction. And many will enter through it, but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life. And only a few find it. Proverbs reminds us as well, too, that there's a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. What can we conclude? It's not found by most. It's easily missed. Second thing. Or from that same part there. I want you to see, not only is it easily missed, it's more valuable than anything else. Matthew 16, 26. Jesus says, what good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man exchange for his soul? Jesus helps us have a vast perspective there on that. If you ever wonder why it's so important for pagan teachings, for atheists, for those that are opposed to any kind of form of Christianity, why it's so important there? If you have a soul, then it's a game changer. But if you don't, then of course this life is all you got. Spend it the best you can, grab it, the best you can, squeeze it for all its worth. But the moment you bring in the reality that we will live beyond this life. That there is something beyond this. And there is something more than what the physical world that we personally see can observe here. That there is a spiritual reality. There is a God who says that we will spend eternity either with him or apart from him. It's a deal breaker. It's a game changer. So Jesus is reminding us through this parable that it can be easily missed. But it's also more valuable than anything else. So look, by way of application here this morning, I want to encourage you to ask you to check your treasure. Check your treasure. And let me just remind you that this is one of those things that's best done every day. I know there are some things that you do routinely. Maybe you exercise. Maybe you take certain vitamins or maybe you do. I mean, hopefully most of you are brushing your teeth at least once a day, right? But there are some things you need to do every day. Let me tell you, this is one of them. Check your treasure. Search your heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to do that. You know, we all start life treasuring something other than God. And the Bible says all have fallen short. And all have sinned. At its core, at its essence means that we are born with a nature that does not want to acknowledge and certainly not want to obey and follow one who is the king of kings and Lord of Lords. So we all start life treasuring something else. Now, the option of treasuring nothing is not available to us. It's not in our DNA. It's not in our human nature because we were designed to be worshipers. And so when you take out the primary thing of worship, which Satan did a great job doing in the garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve giving into that sin, have perpetuated that now for us so that everyone, every newborn little, little child has that sinful nature in them. The only thing that we can trust and we can rest in here is that there is a God who will come and reorient our treasures. But don't think for a second that you don't already have something that you treasure and you are born. It's whatever gives you the greatest joy. It's whatever gives you the greatest security in life. It's where you find your significance. It's what if it were threatened, you'll be willing to fight for. I mean, really fight for. It's what if it were taken away from you, you would no longer want to live. Or you would live in just utter despair. Whatever that is is your treasure. And whatever that is is what you worship. And of course, we're complex individuals, right? We can have a multitude of different kinds of things that we treasure. But Jesus is reminding us here that there's one who has rightful claim to be what you should treasure, because there's only one who is worthy. Here's what's important to remember, to realize this morning, until we find a greater treasure, we will treasure the best thing we can find here on earth. Until we can find a greater treasure, we'll treasure the best thing that we can find here on earth. So don't be surprised by the world running after the treasures of the earth. I've said this from time to time. Don't be so shocked when you read your newspaper, when you watch the news or read it online. Stop being so shocked. And I'm speaking to us as the church. Because they're simply consistently following the world system that they've been wired to as a result of sin. They are consistently simply doing what they were wired and created to do to worship something. But they do not have the hope and the reality of worshiping the one true living God has been real in their lives. So don't be surprised. What is our role? What is our important thing to do as a church is to show them what, where, and what the real treasure is. What a great privilege we have. What a great responsibility as well. Let me tell you right now, it's not wearing a Christian t-shirt. It's not praying before your meals in public, so others will see you do that. It's not voting a certain way this Tuesday. It's not reposting Christian posts on your Facebook page or on your Twitter. It's not using, it's not not using four letter words in public. That's not primarily how we were called to show that Jesus is the treasure. We're called to do that by showing it to them. We're called to do it by showing them who Jesus really is. How glorious Jesus really is. Let me tell you something. You can't show Jesus how glorious and how incredible he really is unless you are also willing to honestly show how desperately in need you are of him. So if you're wanting to come together looking slick and looking good and looking kind of polished and looking kind of like, you know, you smile and there's a little sparkle in your teeth trying to think that's going to how to point him to Jesus. You're not going to do it because Jesus doesn't receive anybody that way because nobody can come to God that way. He receives broken, hurting people, people that are aware of their sin, people who are like those prostitutes and tax collectors who came to Jesus and saw something in him that was different. And that was different than any of the other religious leaders of the day and age. They saw somebody who really was holy and righteous. Didn't just pretend to be. They saw somebody who really was compassionate from thoroughly from the inside out who really loved and really cared for them. He really spoke truth and who really wasn't it wasn't all about him because for Jesus is all about his father and they were drawn to it. It is showing them how messed up and lost we are without him and how we are without him. It's showing them how amazing his grace really is by being exhibit A. Telling your friends or your lost loved ones or people you care about say, hey, you want to know how great his grace is, let me tell you what he's forgiven me from. Let me tell you what he's walked me through. Let me tell you what his body, his church is meant coming around me, his hands and feet. Let me tell you what the truth a God does as I meditate on it daily, giving me hope because I need it. When we start showing and sharing Jesus that way, it doesn't matter what kind of shirt you're wearing. It really doesn't matter how you vote on Tuesday. It doesn't matter your Facebook status because you're showing them the one thing that they were designed along for. They were created to love. It's showing them how living for Jesus has brought greater joy, peace and love than you could have ever imagined and they could ever imagine apart from him. The problem is as they were often fully convinced ourselves that Jesus is really not that great of a treasure. Let's just be honest. Can we just be honest for a change sometimes in church? Can we just say he's really not that great of a treasure sometimes. We want to know how far we can sexually go before we're married. We want to know what is the bare minimum that God requires us to give of our gifts or service or of our money. We want to be friends with our children more than Godly parents to them. We want to be favored by our neighbors more than favored by God. We want to believe in Jesus without having to take a stand with him and defending the weak and rescuing the oppressed and welcoming the children and feeding the hungry and receiving the outsider and touching the broken and loving the outcast. Can we just be honest and say that all too often in the course of the day he's not even what we claim to follow Jesus treasure most. And before you start to feel guilty, can I just tell you he already knows that and he knew that before he received you to himself. And that was a sin he's already paid for and died for and separated from you. He was separated from the father so that your sin could be separated from you as far as the East is from the West. And he knew that would take you eternity to calculate because that's how far it goes. So feel the love, not the guilt, feel the embrace of a father who has made you his precious desire, his prize to adopt you as a son or daughter in his kingdom. Then let that guilt be met with his love, receive his forgiveness. To follow Jesus is to realize that he is the only true treasure. So my question for you this morning is have you discovered Jesus as the treasure he truly is? Have you forgotten or like me do you just need to be reminded again? If you look deeply into whom he is this morning and believe you'll discover he's worth everything. Jesus goes on in his passage and he says when a man found it he hit it again in observation. This treasure is so valuable that it must be guarded. It is so valuable that it must be guarded. Apostle Paul writes in Philippians 3 what is more I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For whose sake I have lost all things I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ. There's a man who is guarding something precious to him and everything else has become rubbish. Application this morning you guard what you treasure. You guard what you treasure. It's a simple fact we are always guarding what we treasure most. I've seen it in real life in a nature TV show a mama bird protecting her chicks. I remember watching one where there was this small mama bird going after this bobcat which was like ten times her size and she was just coming down on it. She didn't care did she? There's a mom guards what she values what she treasures. A couple of days ago I was driving around the waterfront area and I had gone in one of those situations at intersection where I thought the lane I was in was going to go straight but actually it was one of those you must turn right. So I did what every person in that normal situation would do is I kind of squeezed over into the lane and kind of saw the guys eyes next to me and said hey can I get over and he was like sure come on. It made sure I left room for people to get around me. Well there was this one lady who was driving behind me and she had room to get around me but she didn't even turn a little bit. She kept straight in the middle of the lane and came up as close as she could to me and she just hit the horn and literally did not let go until the light changed. This was like a minute and a half two minutes which is a long time for a constant horn noise. People might have been initially irritated with me. I honestly think now that everybody had compassion on me was now irritated at this person thinking who would lay on their horn literally the entire time. I tried to motion say hey there's room to go around because I really didn't need to go straight. I mean I needed to go straight not right and eventually she finally kind of turned around and did go around me because she could and had a few choice words to say at me. I remember thinking there was two treasures going on there because I wanted so bad to outwardly do something but I kept thinking what if she goes to my church. What if she will be invited to come to my church this Sunday and she'll be sitting out here and I'm scanning the crowd to see if I see her that could be awkward. But I was like thinking what would possess somebody to do that and I'm thinking this whole week I'm talking about treasure. It was more important for her to be right than to get where she needed to go quicker. It was more important for me to know that everybody that I was wrong on that. But you know what was going on inside me it was more important for me to continue and I could have just gone ahead and gone yeah I'm kind of blocking I'll go ahead and go right and make the U-turn. The exact same treasures were happening on the heart level but being manifested in different ways and I came across looking a little smelling a little prettier but that's all. The things I didn't say out loud to her let me tell you I did say inside to her. We both were operating what we treasured and valued most in the moment. We guard what's got our hearts. We guard what's got our hearts. Earthly treasures are often our comfort, our reputation, our children. Let me say a lot of times we think that's such a good one. Let me tell you if you worship your children more than God you will spend eternity apart from God. That's harsh but that's true. You know what you'll destroy your children. God knows that. So there are more acceptable substitute treasures but it has the same eternal consequence. We will treasure often our money or our spouse or our health or our careers or our dreams or our influence. I remember I think I shared this before. I remember somebody showing me an audio recording of this guy who was an incredible singer and musician. The song that he had written and he wrote the song to kind of raise money to help them to go the mission field. And as I was listening to him I was thinking this guy ought to go to Nashville. This guy has a recording contract ready to happen but he wasn't interested in going to Nashville. He wasn't interested in a recording contract. He was interested in being faithful to what God had called him to do. And it wasn't serving here or in Nashville. It was serving in some remote country and this was going to be a tool for him to help raise money for it. That's somebody who has a different set of treasures than some of these I just listed here on earth. And by the way these are all good things. I would never tell you not to value your children. I'm not going to tell you not to value your money or your career or your dreams. But when they become ultimate things we have a problem. When good things in life become ultimate things for life they become God things in our life. Let me say that again. When good things in life become ultimate things for life they become God things in our life. But when Jesus is your treasure you will guard that relationship. You will guard that gift. You will guard that hope more than anything else. And it has a tendency to change you. And Jesus said the best way to explain it is like a new birth. You're born again. Everything changes. That was Jesus analogy. Important question. Have you discovered Jesus as a treasure he truly is? If you look deeply into whom he is this morning and believe honestly think you'll discover he's worth everything. Jesus goes on in this short parable and he says and then in his joy this man went and sold all he had and bought that field. Quick observation. The treasure motivated the man with joy to leave everything else behind. The treasure motivated the man with joy to leave everything else behind. In application the greater joy always wins. The greater joy in your life always wins. As true as gravity is a law of the universe this is a law of the universe. For example, while some of you guys get no sleep Thanksgiving night and stand in line for hours on Black Friday. Why for the joy of getting the best deal of the season or thinking you are? Well, while some of you walk away from a perfectly decent job for the joy of getting the job you've always wanted. Why would a woman endure nine months of great physical torment? But for the joy of ushering in the life of her newborn child. It's also why she has forgotten the nine months of pain after holding the newborn in her arms for only a few minutes. Am I right Marcus? Am I right Nick? Why did I train for a marathon last year? I'm still asking myself that question. I've done that. For the joy of finishing a marathon. Why did my son Michael save money for a year and work three jobs one summer? For the joy of putting the ring he wanted on the finger of the girl that he wanted to marry. Let me tell you, joy will always win. What brings you joy? Why is the only reason you will ever turn away from earthly treasures? Let me tell you, why is the only reason you will turn away from earthly treasures? For the joy of knowing the one who is the way, the truth, and the life. And the one who has died to pay the penalty for your sins so that you can know him. That's it. Into the degree that that becomes the greater joy will be to the degree that your relationship grows with him. The important question, have you discovered Jesus at the treasure that he truly is? John Piper writes about this passage specifically. He says, there is a condition for having the kingdom. He's saying there's a condition according to the scriptures to being a follower of Christ, to being a Christian. For having the king on your side and as your friend. But the condition is not wealth, it's not power, it's not intelligence, or eminence. The condition is that you prize the kingdom more than you prize anything else. The point of selling everything in this parable is to simply show where your heart is, where your treasure is, that your heart will also be, Matthew 6. And if your heart is to have the kingdom above all things, then Luke 12, 32, comes true for you. Which says, it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. To give you the kingdom. If you look deeply into whom he is this morning and believe, you'll discover that he is worth everything. Alright, it's stewardship Sunday. If you think this sermon is just about money, you are wrong. It's way more. But if you think this sermon is not about money, you are wrong. It's got everything to do with money and stewardship. Close with this illustration. True at Kathy, founder of Chick-fil-A, who passed away just a few months ago at age 93. If someone were to stop and ask what to true at Kathy, treasure most. The casual observer, right, might say, well Kathy, treasure hard work, good business sense and accomplishment of starting one of the strongest fast food chains ever. I mean just about anybody whether you're a fan of not or Chick-fil-A would say, that's true. Those are kind of factual things. But if you linger beyond a newspaper headline, if you quickly look deeper, if you read most of the articles that were written about him now, even looking back after his death, you would find there was something that was far greater than a successful fast food chain and a chicken sandwich. True at Kathy became a follower of Jesus Christ at age 12. He was a C student. He struggled to be a C average student. He taught, has taught a Sunday school class of seventh eighth grade boys in his local church for over 50 years. That same age group. He and his wife have been foster parents from more than 150 children.
His $5 billion a year restaurant chain is closed on Sundays so employees can worship and spend time with their families. Listen to what true at Kathy actually said about that. He said, I determined that if it took seven days a week to make a living, I should be in some other business. It was my conscious that I had to live with. I just never could come to the idea of dealing with money on the Lord's Day. So he did it. One of his books that he wrote called, it's easier to succeed than to fail his popular libraries. But something uniquely copies he's sent to libraries. He's written personal letters in, personal notes in. What he writes in many of them is Proverbs 22-1. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. It is a verse that he learned in third grade and one that he says is stuck with them. It is sort of my trademark he says. A lot of people have a lot of money but then they take off in the wrong direction and it ruins their reputations. Since 1973 Chick-fil-A has given away $29 million in scholarships to more than 28,000 employees. I think my brother was one of them. I should have worked at Chick-fil-A. Currently right now, or at least was true a year ago, 22 boys that were in his Sunday school class hold major positions in this company.
Here's one of those boys weighing far says. He says, quote, he remembers that he saw something in me and was able to trust me. And it was a great relationship. He now owns two Chick-fil-A restaurants or runs them. He says, I never wanted to be in the food business. But if true at Kathy had been selling cars, I'd be selling cars today. You know, true it's amazing chicken sandwiches will not be remembered for eternity. I know that's hard for some of you to contemplate. Think about it, there's no death in heaven. We're going to eat a little differently, right? So Chick-fil-A sandwich is not going to make it. I'll be remembered long for eternity. But how, or how he chose to allow God to use them. How he treasured Christ above business, above money. How he had an impact on a 50 years, seventh or eighth grade Sunday school class boys. That will live on for eternity. And I'm completely convinced that if true at Kathy could come and make a cameo in our service here today, he would say, don't you think it's any different? It's proud as he was of what he did with a chicken company. He's far more glad of what has happened with the lives of boys, with foster children than he's had, with scholarship that I mean given the way he's invested, the way he has been he's stewarded. Because there's no question of what he treasured more. His family heritage that he's left will be remembered. His legacy that finds its ways to your ears this morning will be remembered. True at Kathy's life screams that Jesus is worth it. If you look deeply into whom he is this morning and believe, you'll discover as well. He's worth everything. God has asked that you would come and you would minister and work in our hearts. That you would come and remind us God of the grace that we need. God I'm just so thankful that you're not up in heaven checking the treasure meter of my life to try to determine how much I'm treasured you today. And if I treasure you more, I'll get more grace and more favor from you. If I treasure you less, I'll get less grace and favor. You knew and you know that we don't have the power in us to treasure you even as you are. And yet you have come and met us in our state. Jesus, the only one who's walked earth and who is truly treasured, God the Father the way he is worthy to be treasured. And who has earned all righteousness, died and suffered on the cross so that we could be free from that curse. And that we can be empowered to begin to live as you called us to live. So God, would you not let this room be filled with guilt? Would you let this room be filled with hope? God, would you let this room be left with thinking of what we are not and how we don't measure up? Would you let us leave this room here today knowing what we have and how Christ has measured up? So God, would you fill us with hope? Would you become more and more the treasure of our heart and lives? A treasure that we will guard, a treasure that we will want to share and a treasure that for the joy that we have. That we might have it. God, we thank you that you sold and you gave away all that you had on a cross that we might have it. So we give you thanks. We pray you continue to draw hearts here to you today. And that your spirit would move in our midst, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.