I’d like to tell you about an enemy I’ve faced my entire life. Even before I was born he tried to destroy me through abortion, but God made sure my mother was wise enough, and trained in medical understanding, so she would know the two doctors who told her to abort me were wrong.
After I was born, the enemy tried again to damage me with sexual abuse that took place when I was a child. But God delivered me, all be it damaged, I would have a stutter the rest of my life.
In my early years the enemy tried to destroy me through wicked friendships that taught me mockery and sexual perversion and bullying.
In the next phase the enemy tried to destroy me through the public education system, attempting to estrange me from my faith upbringing, manipulate me with propaganda and scientism, and a secular curriculum meant to exclude God from every aspect of life.
In my teens he tried to destroy me through bullying, prescription pills, and strife in the family. Yet God protected me.
In my twenties he tried to destroy me through drugs, drinking, pornography, and sexual immorality. Yet God spared my life in overdoses and suicide attempts.
In my late twenties the enemy experienced his worst failure when I called upon the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of my sins, and began a whole new life.
In my thirties the enemy has attempted to endlessly fight me in my mission of winning souls to Christ. He fought me endlessly in Owosso, attempting to defeat and minimize every victory we achieved in Christ. Yet God brought victory.
In my late thirties the enemy has tried to destroy me through depression, brutal spiritual warfare, temptations, and even mockery and gossip from fellow believers. Yet God has always brought encouragement and hope and victory when defeat seemed inevitable.
Today we’re talking about the hidden treasure in the field, and believe me, you know you’ve faced the same enemy I’ve faced, and he has tried to destroy you. He has tried to keep you so far away from that treasure in the field. He’s tried to keep you focused on other things. He’s tried to keep you locked up in pleasures.
But it didn’t work. You’re here today. And the eyes of your heart are opening.
The enemy likes to keep us focused on self. Caught in the grind of life. Always stuck in a tunnel vision, never looking up toward the light of the God who made us.
Stop and look up brothers and sisters, see the Lord God Almighty the one who loves you so completely. Slow down and focus your heart on Him, even right now. He loves you. Open the light, Open the door to Him. Let the Lord of Glory into your soul. He will change you forever.
Our scripture starts today with Jesus speaking to the people two thousand years ago, and he tells them something that we can understand just as easily today as then.
It starts off like this, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field…” (Matthew 13:44)
I didn’t know it was there. Honestly, I did not. Maybe you can relate today. You don’t see it there. That beautiful treasure chest full of priceless gold. But it’s there, just as plain as day.
But the enemy keeps us blind to it. Our flesh keeps us blind to it. Because we’re so caught up in the things of this world.
The treasure of God is waiting for us. But we’re stuck on something else. We’re stuck on chasing money. We’re stuck on chasing power. We’re stuck in chasing after popularity. We’re stuck on the hunt for strength, or romance.
I played the rat race for many years. I tried to become more and more attractive, working out, finding the right clothes, going on dating sites to try to climb that ladder, and no matter how high on that ladder you get, it never ends, and as time goes by, you slide down. It’s exhausting and empty.
I tried climbing the ladder of popularity, social media, clicks, friend groups, and again, no matter how high you climb, there’s always another level to try to get to, it’s empty, it’s exhausting.
I tried the workout scene, going to the gym, doing P90X, Insanity, yoga, all that stuff, again, it never quite leads anywhere.
I tried chasing girls, dating scene, chasing empty relationship after empty relationship again, never got anywhere, left every relationship more broken and more empty and more frustrated.
For you maybe it’s money, you think if you just get enough money, if you can just get rich you’ll finally be happy, you’ll finally be satisfied.
For others it’s work, they work constantly, endless hours, they are workaholics, but again, that climbing, it doesn’t end up leading anywhere.
Now don’t get me wrong, none of these things are bad in themselves. We should work, we should earn money, we should date and get married, we should exercise, we should have friends and connections, but it’s when we make these things our goal in life, we make them our god, that they end up being empty and exhausting.
Keep God first. Let God reign over your money, your romance, your health, and he will guide you, so that it never becomes a god, and idol over you.
It’s the climbing ladders of this world. And there’s only one ladder I want to climb today, and it’s the ladder that leads to heaven. And that ladder is Jesus Christ the King.
We get so focused on money, romance, power, popularity, and work that we can’t see the treasure hidden in the field. Do you see it today? It’s right there. It’s the kingdom of God. And it’s all around us. It’s real.
If you can’t quite see it today, don’t worry, keep seeking, keep showing up, it took me years before God finally opened my eyes, and I saw that treasure.
And when I saw the treasure of God, well, everything else became secondary. I wanted that treasure. The enemy did everything he could to stop me from seeing it and getting it. Same with you:
You have an enemy in the world who wants to keep you distracted from the treasure available to you.
To access the treasure available to us, we need to understand how God’s kingdom system works.
How does God’s kingdom system function? That’s the key question here. We saw the prodigal son, the goal is to bring you home safely. We saw the concept of transformation, you must be born again. To be part of God’s kingdom we must be made new by Jesus. We talked about the good Samaritan, in God’s kingdom, we take on the role of bringing others into the kingdom. Now today we settle in on God’s kingdom like an immense treasure hidden in a field.
Jesus tells us the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. Next, verses 45-46: “When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
This guy was out walking one day. And he’s crossing through the country, on a path maybe he’s taken many times. And one day he’s crossing the valley and he stops and something catches his eye.
It’s shiny, it draws him. And he walks over, and sure enough ,it’s a chest. He flips the chest open, and inside he is shocked to find thousands of gold coins. It’s a priceless treasure, worth more than he could possibly imagine.
That is what it’s like when we first discover the gospel of Jesus Christ. We realize we can have all our sins forgiven. And we can receive eternal life. We can live forever. We don’t have to go to hell. We don’t have to suffer eternal wrath from God. We can be saved.
What could be greater than that? Nothing on this planet. Nothing. It’s a gold treasure worth more than we could imagine.
So this man finds the treasure. And he hides it again, and leaves. He finds the owner of the field, and he asks the price to purchase the field.
The price he finds out is going to be high. Very high.
It will cost him everything he owns. So the man says, you know what, it’s a high price, but, I’m going to do it, because the value of the treasure is so astronomical.
Next point here, when we see the gospel of Jesus, forgiveness of our sins, new life, eternal hope, we are very excited. But there is also a price we pay as well.
It’s a free gift, don’t get me wrong.
Yet the challenge is that we have to give up our old life, and embrace an entirely new life. We have to give up our sins.
Many people I know will come so close to the gospel of Jesus, but when they find out they have to give up the drugs, or the sleeping around, or the selfishness, or the pride, they turn around and decide against it.
But a wise man or woman knows the value of the treasure. They are willing to give up everything. And they do.
The man who found the treasure realizes its worth it. So worth it. So he gets to work selling everything he owns.
He sells his house, his donkey, his possessions, everything. And after he does, he realizes, “I’ve got just enough for the field.”
So he goes and buys the field. And he digs up that treasure and he celebrates. He’s done it. It took giving up everything he had. But finally, he has that priceless treasure. And He celebrates.
That’s the first example we get from Jesus. Treasure hidden in a field.
There is a second example. It comes immediately after in verses 45-46: “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 bought it.”
Similar situation, we have a merchant who is in search of pearls. He finds a beautiful pearl that is more beautiful and perfect than any other pearl he has ever seen. So he went away, sold everything he had, and bought that pearl.
Believe in your heart that what you’ve found in Jesus is more precious than anything in the universe. Because it’s true.
Now, the question remains, we’ve found it, it’s here. But how can we fight ourselves? Because myself is saying, keep it off to the side. Keep yourself in charge. Just kind of come to church and listen, but don’t really change your life.
Here is a powerful illustration… “To bring to the place where you live only the best and most beautiful-what a plan for one’s life! This is well within the reach of everyone. Think of using one’s memory in that way. As one lives from day to day, there are all sorts of experiences, good, bad, beautiful, ugly, that become a part of ones past. To develop the ability to screen one’s memory so that only the excellent is retained for one’s own room! All kinds of ideas pass through one’s mind, about one’s self, about the world, about people. Which do you keep for your own room? Think it over; which areas do you keep for the place that you live? It is well within the mark to say that the oft quoted words of Jesus, about laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven, deal with the same basic idea. The place where you live is where your treasure is. Where your treasures are is where your heart is. Where your heart is, is where your God is.” -Howard Thurman, Deep is the Hunger.
We have to eliminate distractions. That’s the enemy’s great trick is to keep us constantly focused on television, internet, parties, texts, working, dates, and we never have time for God. The battle occurs in your mind. That’s where it must be won.
One of the mistakes many make is they treat Christianity as something to be added to the side of their life, like another hobby, or some new thing to try for a while. But Jesus leaves no space for us to treat the faith as some moderately important venture.
C.S. Lewis said, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
What we’ve found hidden in the field is beyond anything we could think or imagine. It is the answer to the meaning of life itself.
The human mind will want to keep Christianity off to the side. Particularly in the west we attempt to take Jesus and bring the world with. We try follow Jesus and keep our sins in a backpack with us along the way. But there is no hope for such a venture, it only leads to double-mindedness and shipwrecked faith.
Many Christians lament the lack of enthusiasm in the churches. Many Christians lament the sin found in the churches. Many Christians lament the revival that tarries.
But we need look no further than the mirror to find the problem. We attempt to keep Christianity on the side and treat it as moderately important. Such a double-minded faith walk has left modern Christianity weak and compromised.
Instead, we must keep Jesus first in everything. Anything we lose or give up for the sake of the kingdom is nothing compared to what we will gain.
There are millions of distractions in life that threaten to disrupt our ability to keep a pure focus on Jesus Christ as the first importance of our lives. We must learn to fight ourselves, and wrestle within to keep Jesus first in everything.
What is the difference between a set apart saint and a compromised saint? They’ve fought the battle of entire consecration to the Lord. Everyday, make a decision to give a little bit more to Jesus. And one day it will be all.
“General William Booth was once asked to reveal the secret of his success. After some hesitation, tears came to his eyes and he said, “I will tell you the secret. God has had all there was of me. There have been men with greater brains than I have, men with greater opportunities, but from the day that I got the poor of London on my heart and caught a vision of what Jesus could do with them, I made up my mind that God should have all of William Booth.” It was this which led Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, the questioner, to remark, “I learned from William Booth that the greatness of a man’s power is the measure of his surrender.” -J.G. Heck (Heck, 2003, Encyclopedia of Illustrations #12616).
In conclusion, the blessing is, we’ve found the greatest treasure imaginable, hidden in a field, the forgiveness of our sins in Jesus Christ.
The challenge is that given that we’ve found such a great treasure, our response must be no less than to keep Jesus Christ as the most important focus of our lives.
Next Steps:
How do we live this parable?
A. Living the parable of the hidden treasure means seeing God’s kingdom as a beautiful treasure available to us.
B. Living the parable of the hidden treasure means Jesus is the most important part of your life.
C. Living the parable of the hidden treasure means leaving behind any distractions that could disrupt your walk with Jesus.
Discussion Questions:
1. Why does Jesus compare the Kingdom of God to treasure?
2. What distractions in your life are preventing you from going all in for the kingdom of God?
3. How do you treat your Christian faith? Low importance, moderate importance, or of the highest importance?
4. Why does the parable mention the need to sell everything to receive the pearl or treasure?
5. What practical ways can you keep Jesus first in your heart and life?
