Matthew 13:44-46 (Sells Everything He Had_

[00:00:00] So we're doing our order of service a little different today, and there's a simple reason for that. I texted Chris, and I just said, look, this sermon's so good, I need a full 90 minutes. And he said, okay, so I'm joking. [00:00:39] And move most of our liturgy to the tail end and just spend some extended time in praise and worship and adoration and thankfulness. And so that's kind of the goal today, is for us to take some time to remember the kingdom, take some time to remember the gospel, to remember our thankfulness for how good God is to us, and then get to man. Just linger in praise and in thankfulness in the goodness of God. Sound like a plan? So we're going to see two amazing truths today. We're going to be in Matthew 13. If you want to, go ahead and turn there. As we consider these two short, back to back parables from Jesus's perspective, we're going to see just man, the immense love with which our sweet Jesus chases us down and draws us unto himself. Though we bear no value in and of ourselves, Christ sees us as worthy of the cost of his very life. Second, as we consider these parables from the perspective of the church, we're going to see how the kingdom of God is so insanely valuable that we can joyfully give whatever it costs to partake twofold. I think it's going to be good for us today. If you don't have a Bible with you, we have bibles around the room. Just look under the chairs in front of you. We really believe in the importance of access to God's word here at Emmanuel. If you don't own a physical copy of God's word, I would strongly encourage you to literally, just take one. Like, take one of the pew bibles or talk to us. We have some nicer ones we'd love to give you, because we think it's important to have God's word. So we're going to read from Matthew 13, starting in verse 44, and then we'll go from there. Matthew 13, starting in verse 44. We read this. [00:02:19] The kingdom of heaven is like treasure buried in a field that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy, he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field again. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had and bought it. And this, beloved, is the word of the Lord for us today. Pray with me. Church Jesus, we thank you for the privilege of being together as family. God, thank you for the gift of brotherhood and sisterhood, that we're not exploring this life in this faith journey on our own, but that we have you, we have each other. Spirit, we pray that today you would be our discipler, that we would be the audience Christ spoke of, who have open eyes and open hearts, soft and tender, ready to receive the good seed of your gospel, Lord, that it may bear fruit in us lots and lots and lots over. God, we need you to do this. You are the one who tends our hearts, who prepares the soil of our person. God, we pray that you do this for us today. Be our disciple or be the one who preaches to us. We love you, Lord, and we pray these things in your name. Amen. [00:03:38] Okay, so we have two very short parables here. And honestly, there's not a lot to explain to understand them. There are a couple aspects of these texts that I want to point out that I think will help get us in the historical cultural context. But before we do that, let's remember our immediate context of Matthew 13. Right. Like this is considered one of Jesus's sermons, one of his discourses in Matthew, often called the Bay of parables. Jesus is specifically teaching to his followers in this bay outside of capernaum. And he's speaking to his twelve, right? But he's also speaking to these large crowds that have gathered around who've been following him and seeking out his miraculous ministry. Now, Matthew has arranged this scene in Matthew 13, honestly, in a way that's literally interesting but confusing to read. So Jesus gives the parable of sower, and then we get this flash forward of him explaining the parable. Then he gives the three parables, the wheat, the weeds, the mustard, the leaven. And the text tells us that he leaves the crowd and heads back to his house in Capernaum, where he further explains the meaning of that parable. And in our text today and next week, Jesus jumps straight back into parables. And so there's debate here about whether this scene is a flashback again to him in the bay teaching to all the crowds, or if this is him in the house giving further parables to just the twelve. And, guys, I know it's kind of confusing, but the beneficial thing is that it honestly does not change the meaning of the text in any significant way. I do think there's good reason, textually, the way Matthew is structured, to think that this is a flashback, that the scene is again Jesus teaching to the large crowds in the bay. But I may be wrong about that, and it isn't going to affect what we talk about today. I do think Matthew wrote this section with this purposeful back and forth. Regardless, Jesus gives these last few parables, and our two for today are very short. In the first one, a man finds buried treasure and buys the field so he can have the treasure. In the second, a merchant is out looking for expensive pearls. He finds one that's super rare, and then he buys it. The parables are strikingly similar and by the way, are making essentially the same point. But I think Jesus shares both parables to us. Honestly, I think it draws us to a couple important truths, and I think it's shown in kind of this comparison and contrast between the two parables. So let's look at each in turn and see what God might be saying to us. We'll start with the buried treasure. This is the first one. First we have this story about a guy, he's walking through a field and he finds buried treasure. Now, if you recall, one of our interpretive lenses for parables is to ask the question like, what aspects of this story are strange would have been normal to the original audience? And what would have been strange to the original audience? This is an example of when that idea is important for understanding the text in our day of federally insured banks, right? Like, buried treasure is the stuff of pirate stories, right? That's not really a thing that we do. But this was actually very common in Jesus'day. It was a common enough experience that in Palestine, in Galilee, there were laws in place governing what to do when buried treasure was found. And the reason, guys, is simple. Palestine was a really violent and unstable region for generations, as different empires took over different empires. And so people learned the art of burying their valuables anytime trouble arose and soldiers might be headed through the region. Sometimes when that happened, things got really bad and folk got killed and they wouldn't come back to find their buried goods, which would leave them buried for a long time. And in that region, the way the weather works out stuff would be really well preserved. And so the idea that someone would stumble upon a buried treasure wasn't actually that outlandish. And when you partner that with the fact that they didn't really understand trespassing the way we do, there were common paths that went all through everyone's property. And in a normal day, you would cross over multiple people's property with no real offense or any social taboo connected to that guys, it actually kind of sets up a scenario where Jesus'story isn't that unlikely at all. What's strange about Jesus'parable is that in his joy, this man sells everything he has to buy the field and secure the treasure. This is strange, because the established law of the time essentially amounted to finders keepers. It didn't matter whose property the treasure was buried on, unless you were directly on the clock operating as the agent of someone else hunting for treasure. If you found treasure, it was yours. And so the idea that this guy had every legal right to the treasure, but he still goes and sells everything he has to buy the field so that there's no possible way to dispute the claim. It's supposed to draw our attention to this. And it essentially tells us this, guys, this was a stinking treasure, right? This was a stinking treasure. This was the kind of treasure this guy said, there can be no questions here. It has to be unequivocal. This is mine. And so, in his joy, this guy goes and liquidates every asset he has. [00:09:30] This means selling his house, selling his donkeys, selling the family heirlooms, selling his extra clothes. Right? Like everything he has to sell, he sells so we can go and buy the field, and then he has the treasure. This treasure was apparently worth so much that this man was able to sell off everything he had with joy at the thought of the treasure awaiting him for his sacrifice. [00:09:54] Right? It speaks to the size of the treasure he found that he's going. The cost here is nothing compared to the gain. I don't know about you, but if you're like a church person right now, I think you're probably already going like, oh, I know where this is going. I know what the application is. It's very easy to jump to application in a text like this, especially when this rich. But stick with me. Let's walk through this in turn, because I think there's a progression we need to walk through mentally. So, hidden treasure, pearl of great price. This is another famous parable. And this parable, we're told of a merchant who went out searching for a valuable pearl. When he finds it, it's so expensive that he has to sell everything. He has to get it again. This is not a strange story. Initially, pearls were very valuable. In this day, much more so than they are now. Because it was a day before synthetic and farmed pearls, they were hard to obtain naturally. And merchants often specialized in very specific valuables that they just knew how to trade well. And so it makes sense this merchant would be out searching for good investments. What's strange about the second parable is that the way Jesus tells it seems to imply that this merchant intends to keep this pearl. [00:11:09] Now, that's very strange. This is a businessman who buys stock and then sells stock to make profit. But this story is told in the kind of way that makes you go, no, he wants this pearl for himself. He's so struck by the majesty of this pearl he's found that he doesn't see it as stock. He doesn't see it as an investment to turn around. He sees it as a treasure to own. [00:11:35] And that moves him to liquidate every penny he has to obtain it. The differences here, I think, are interesting, right? The man who found the treasure was just out walking and stumbled upon the treasure, but the merchant was out searching. Both men had to sell everything they had to get their treasure. But think about this difference. The man with the buried treasure, his joy, let him sell all he had for the treasure, because presumably the treasure was enough for him to live on moving forward. [00:12:04] The merchant, on the other hand, had to choose. [00:12:08] He could not have his fortune and the treasure. Once he sold all he had to get the pearl, he would have had to sell the pearl to have money again. Instead, there's something about having the treasure that is enough for this merchant. It's sufficient for him. Now, guys, we have to be careful not to read too much into the detailed parables, right? We talked about this the first week. These aren't the same thing as allegories. Not every detail speaks to the truth, but the fact that these two parables are so short and so similar, I do think the difference in details is intentional by Jesus for us. You see, for the last, essentially 2000 years, scholars and theologians have debated about these two texts, and it comes down to this. Are these two parables about Jesus sacrificing for the church and buying the church? Or is this about individual christians sacrificing to partake in the kingdom? I think the slight difference in these two stories helps highlight the fact that both interpretations of this parable are true. [00:13:16] I think this is one of those examples where Jesus has intentionally woven multiple layers of meaning here. And when you do the work of looking at each parable from the perspective of Christ and then looking at each parable from the perspective of the church, you end up with two different but completely complementary and connected teachings that are insanely appropriate for us today. So let's do that. Let's walk through these two parables from both perspectives, and let's just see where Jesus takes us. So we start by asking this. What would these two parables mean if Christ were the main character? If Jesus was the main character in these two parables, then we're forced to ask this question. [00:14:03] Jesus, the God of the universe, the creator of existence, the king of reality, what treasure could possibly so grab his heart that he would give up everything to have it? [00:14:18] That's a really important question. [00:14:21] Christ is the king of reality. He is sovereign. All things are his. [00:14:27] What treasure could actually draw his heart like that? [00:14:32] Well, if we consider Jesus'own ministry, like, if you just take even a cursory knowledge of the stories of the four gospels, we're left with the unavoidable answer to the question that for some reason, we are that treasure. [00:14:48] Jesus seeks his bride, his church, his creation, humanity. [00:14:55] Now, guys, that's nuts. [00:14:59] That's nuts. I don't say this as a dig to you, beloved, but this is a space where we can all be honest for a minute. Yeah, how the heck are we a treasure that Jesus desires us? I mean, again, I'm in this with you, right? But aren't we all rebellious sinners? [00:15:23] He's the God of the universe. [00:15:26] How could we possibly be so valuable to Jesus? Why would he sacrifice to have us? What value do we add to his existence to make us a treasure worth seeking? [00:15:41] You know, in modern English, we use the words worth and value interchangeably. And most of the time, that's fine. They can function as synonyms, but on a technical sense, there's actually a distinction in their definition. We don't usually use them this way, but I think for this discussion, pointing out the technical distinction is actually helpful. See, worth is connected to the cost of something's production. How much would it cost to make another one? Whereas value is connected to something's importance. How much would it fetch on the open market? Another way of saying this is worth is often used to mean how much it costs to make something. And value is often used to mean how much something would actually pay for it. Now, I'm going to give you an example here. Kim took this picture for me this morning. This is my Charizard Pokemon card. Can we see it? There it is. [00:16:34] Some of the people my age and younger are going speaks to my heart. Sometime in the summer of 1999, little eleven and a half year old me went into slackers. Cds and games, spent my $3, got my pack of cards, opened it up, pulled out a holographic charizard. My life forever changed. The guy in the store offered to buy it off me with cash right in the moment. And I said, no. [00:16:56] People, adults gathered around me and were like, you got a charizard? It was like the Willy Wonka scene. [00:17:04] I'll buy that off you, kid. Oh, this is mine. And it was my most valued treasure as a little eleven year old child. I went home and I put it in the card sleeve and I hid it away and I never let anyone touch it. Guys. I literally had kids who would make treks on their bicycle multiple miles to my house to be like, I heard you have a charizard. I'll trade all of this for your charizard. Never get away from me with your petty holographics. This was my childhood. [00:17:32] You guys are seeing a window into my heart you don't normally see. [00:17:37] Charizard is precious to me until I was about 15. And then I was too cool for Pokemon cards. And so I lived to my brothers and like, you guys want these? And I gave them to him because I didn't care about it anymore. And then years later, now I didn't think they were cool, but I thought it was ironic. I was like, you still got those Pokemon cards? I'm going to playing with my friends. So they had them in a shoebox and I took them back and I made decks and played with my friends. And that was about the time I got married and became a youth pastor. And I just thought it was funny. I had this card that was so valuable back in the. It's just a piece of cardboard. So I used it as a bookmark in my bible for like, four or five years when I was a youth pastor. And I would preach, and then Covid happened. [00:18:19] And when Covid happened, all of a sudden the value of random things like 90s Pokemon cards exploded. [00:18:28] And I had a couple of friends who are like, don't you have a holographic charizard? Do you still have that? Yeah, I think I still have it. Do you know how much those are worth? [00:18:36] I have no idea how much those are worth. Let me show you guys a picture of one that's on eBay right now. Here's the problem. [00:18:52] Here's the problem, guys. [00:18:56] That's not how much mine is worth. [00:18:59] And there's a couple of reasons. There's a couple of you in the room who are like, I can actually tell you the difference between those two cards, but here's the real difference. Mine got used as a bookmark for four years. [00:19:10] And so it got all scratched up and it got all bent and it got all the corners dog eared. And you know what? It's worth nothing. [00:19:19] Which is hilarious to me. But here's the thing. [00:19:24] Who on earth would see a little, like three by four inch piece of cardboard with ink on it and go, ah, yes, tens of thousands of dollars. That's what I would give for that small piece of cardboard. It is a distinct difference between worth and value, right? It costs that card company nothing to print. Holographic charizards. And yet they hold immense value for certain people. Right? [00:19:53] There is a difference between worth and value, and sometimes that doesn't matter. Sometimes they're basically synonyms, but sometimes it really matters. [00:20:04] So think about Charizard. [00:20:06] You can weep with me, 22 year old me, not caring and not putting it in a sleeve. [00:20:11] Okay. Anyway, moving on. All right, suck that down. Back in the sermon, it comes back to this. [00:20:21] What do we actually bring to the table for Jesus? [00:20:25] And here's the deal, guys. In a very honest way, we can say nothing. Nothing. [00:20:30] Yet his love for us is so deep, his love for us is so immense, that we still have great value to him. [00:20:44] And if you measure value by what someone is willing to pay for something, then our value as people becomes terrifyingly vast when Christ, the God of the universe, gives his very life for us, for you, for I, for me, us, the God of the universe, paid his life to have us. [00:21:12] Guys, that is hard to fathom. [00:21:17] It's hard to fathom, hard to put language to that. This is why I always refer to you, church, as beloved as your pastor. I never want you to forget who you are in Christ. You are the beloved of the God of the universe. [00:21:39] You are loved by God. You. He loves you. You. [00:21:47] I know in a space like this, many of us identify ourselves with all sorts of things. [00:21:55] Maybe for you, it's your job. [00:21:57] Maybe it is your education. [00:22:00] Maybe it is your passions, your hobies. But I've got news for you. [00:22:05] No matter how amazing these things are, they will fail you. You'll get laid off. [00:22:12] You'll wake up one morning and realize you're actually not the best or smartest in your field. Or worse, technology in the world will change, and all of a sudden, your field becomes worthless. [00:22:22] Or you'll get older and your body will fail, and your ability to engage, your passion or your hobby will diminish. [00:22:30] What about relationships? You say? Many of us define ourselves by important relationships. Spouse, child, parent, friend, grandparent, sibling, boyfriend, girlfriend. And don't get me wrong, those things can be wonderful. [00:22:44] But can we also soberly admit for a moment that they will not last? [00:22:50] What happens when that person leaves? When they grow up and have their own life? When they move on? How about when they hurt you or betray you or leave you or make destructive choices and push you out of their lives or die won't last beyond this. I know in a space like this, many of us, we don't even have it in us to define our person by these external good things. We're too weighed down by guilt, by shame, by sorrow, by hurt in our own life, by our own addictions and our own failures and our own sin patterns that we define ourselves by our failures, our sins, our addictions, our wounds. [00:23:37] But, beloved, you are more than this. [00:23:43] You are so much more than the pleasures and prides that you find in this life. [00:23:52] You are so much more than the people you hang out with in this life. You're so much more than the failures you have in this life. You are the beloved of Jesus, the apple of his eye, the love of his life, and he will pay a ludicrous price to have you. You mean that much to him. [00:24:16] This may not make much sense to you, but regardless, it is your reality. [00:24:24] It is reality that God is most glorified in the gospel of grace and in loving and saving the likes of you and me. [00:24:35] The Christ Tim in Philippians two reminds us of this exact point. Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Verse seven. Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [00:25:01] For Jesus, God is most glorified in a gospel of grace, where he pours out himself for you. [00:25:12] He gives himself for us. [00:25:15] In the wonderful gospel of the kingdom of God, God is glorified in your salvation. [00:25:22] Come on, you guys, don't miss this. I know I'm lingering here, but I need you to hear this. You are beloved of God right here, right now, exactly as you are with all the problems that you brought into this space, with you, with all your baggage. Regardless of what sins or hurts or injustice has brought you to this point in life, the ones you have done and the ones others have done to you, the ways the curses affected you and the ways you have furthered the curse, whatever brought you to this space, you are beloved Christ. [00:25:58] There is no sin so deep, no pit, no deep that God's love is not deeper still. [00:26:05] It's a famous quote from corey ten boom, a believer who's also a Holocaust survivor. [00:26:11] There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still, there is nothing that you or the curse can come up with that is somehow more powerful than the love of God. [00:26:23] Beloved of Jesus. [00:26:25] This is the gospel call to you, right here, right now. Christ bought you with a price, the price of his very life. [00:26:35] And hear this. [00:26:37] He did it with joy. [00:26:40] He did it with joy because he longs to have you. He was not reluctant. [00:26:46] He does not love you out of some sense of obligation or guilt. Well, I'm perfect, so I have to love these. No. [00:26:54] We worship a God who delights in his own glory and glorifies himself in his love and salvation of the likes of us. [00:27:03] Hebrews twelve says, keep your eyes on Jesus the pioneer, the perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. [00:27:16] It was joy for Christ to sacrifice on your behalf. It is joy, love and eager expectation that draws Christ to you. He is like a merchant who sought you out and spent what he had to spend to have you because you are a treasure to him. [00:27:34] Come on, church. [00:27:37] I know many of you don't believe that even as I say it, but it is true. [00:27:42] You are a treasure to Christ. [00:27:45] He spent what he had to spend to have you. [00:27:48] Which leads us perfectly to the second layer of this parable. [00:27:53] What is this parable? Saying if the church is the main character, if followers of Jesus are the main character, then we're left with a really intense challenge. [00:28:04] If you're in Christ, then at some point, your heart came in contact with the king. Amen. Like that is our testimony. At some point, you ran smack dab into the face of the king. [00:28:17] If you're in Christ, you may have been seeking that truth. You may have simply wandered through life and stumbled into it. But either way, you were confronted with the treasure that is the kingdom of God. [00:28:30] Which leaves us with this exact same question. [00:28:34] What is it about the kingdom of God that makes it a treasure to you? [00:28:39] Why is it the kind of treasure that you would joyfully pay whatever it costs to have it? What is it about the kingdom of God that works that way? That grabs ahold of our heart that way? Beloved, it is exactly what we just spent ten minutes talking about. [00:28:54] I mean, consider the gospel for just a moment. [00:29:00] Think about how immense and grand the love of your God is. [00:29:06] Consider him. [00:29:08] Think about. I mean, like, seriously, right now, he's all powerful. He's the king of reality, yet he considers you. [00:29:16] Yet you are on his mind. [00:29:20] By the way, he doesn't just consider you. He delights in you. [00:29:26] He enjoys you with all your mess of contradictions and hypocrisy. [00:29:33] You with that heart that both loves others and hates you with that mouth that sings praises to God on Sunday and utters out bitterness and curses later. [00:29:45] You. [00:29:46] He meets you in your absolute mess. [00:29:49] And because of the immensity of his mercy and his glory, he makes a way for you to be forgiven. [00:29:58] And this is, I think, the crazy part, guys. He's not even satisfied with forgiveness. Forgiveness is not enough for him. So he moves beyond forgiveness and he gives you his own righteousness that you might become holy. He doesn't zero out your account and just pay your overdraft fee. No, he moves you from that negative balance into positive. [00:30:18] He forgives your sin and pays for it and then hands you his righteousness that you might become holy. [00:30:25] Beloved, God makes you holy. [00:30:29] He adopts you into his very family and treats you as his own child and makes you co heirs with Christ. [00:30:36] You know, in an adoption hearing in the US, there's a new birth certificate that's issued. And there's this moment where the new parents take an oath before the judge. It's this public thing where they say that they're going to care for the child as if the child was naturally born to the parents. Should look up YouTube videos of it. It's beautiful. It's a really beautiful thing because that's an earthly court with mere humans. [00:30:58] You have the king of reality who adopts you, who takes you into his own family and treats you like his son. You're given full access. You're given full privilege, full rights of family. You're made to persevere so that you can step into your perfect forever with the lover of your soul. Instead of the lot your mess of sin earned you. You are given the gift of a perfect forever, living exactly as you were made to live with complete joy and complete fulfillment. If that's not good news, I don't know what good news is. [00:31:38] Beloved, this is the treasure you have found in Jesus. [00:31:42] It's everything. [00:31:44] It's your life. [00:31:46] It's what you were made for. It surpasses anything and everything this world could possibly offer you. [00:31:55] Of course it's worth any price. [00:31:59] Of course it's worth any sacrifice. It's about your forever. [00:32:04] The treasure was so big. That man said, I don't care what I have to sell. [00:32:08] Once I have the treasure, I'll have everything I need. [00:32:12] Well, it doesn't matter what you have to give for the kingdom. Once you have Christ, you have everything. [00:32:18] By the way. This is not some guilt trip. I'm not trying to make you feel bad about your sin. I'm not trying to scare you with threats of hell. [00:32:28] Let me be honest. I don't think most of us need my help with that. [00:32:32] If you're willing to be honest with yourself, you know what kind of sinful heart you have. You know what's hiding under the surface. We all do. [00:32:39] You know what you're really like when no one else is around? No, I don't need to do some guilt or scare tactic because this, from me to you, from me as your pastor to this church, from me as a brother in Christ to you, this is an invitation to live a life that matters, to live a life that is fulfilled, to live a life that, as it was designed to, stretches into forever. [00:33:06] Psalmist says it like this in psalm 16. [00:33:09] I always let the Lord guide me because he is at my right hand, so I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad. My whole being rejoices. My body also rests securely. For you will not abandon me to shiol. You will not allow your faithful one to see decay. You reveal the path of life to me. In your presence is abundant joy and at your right hand are eternal pleasures. [00:33:33] Beloved, you are made for this. [00:33:36] This is an invitation to step into the best possible life you could live. [00:33:44] So what do you and I do with a text like Matthew 13? [00:33:49] What's the response to a text like this? [00:33:52] I would say this. [00:33:54] You smile, maybe you laugh a little bit. You give a shout of praise and an amen. Beloved, the gospel is such good news. It's cold water on a hot day. It's comfort and love. It's forgiveness and reconciliation. It's real life. [00:34:10] So it costs you something. [00:34:12] Yeah, you have to live a different kind of life. Yeah. You have to battle your sin and grow in holiness. Yeah. You have to stand in opposition to the powers and desires of this world. It may end relationships or make your life harder. I mean, yeah, all those things are true. And you should count the cost. Christ tells you to count the cost. But beloved, do yourself a favor and count the cost because that math adds up. I'm here to tell you guys that math adds up. [00:34:44] So what? Your 70 to 90 years here on earth are harder because of Jesus. Yes, that's true. That's true. Look at our brothers and sisters throughout history, throughout the world right now. If you give your yes to Jesus, your life on this earth will be more difficult. [00:35:00] But who the heck would want to gain the world and gain all it has to offer and yet lose there forever, beloved, there's no gain in that. [00:35:12] Who would want the fleeting pleasures of a few decades and miss out on the trillions upon trillions upon trillions that exist within forever? [00:35:21] Count the cost. [00:35:23] Yes, absolutely. Count the cost. Look at your life. Look at the difficulty and pain that is involved in submitting yourself to Christ and killing your sin and walking in repentance and calling evil evil and good good. Look at what it will cost you and weigh it soberly. [00:35:43] But please do the extra step of putting it next to forever. [00:35:48] Paul says it perfectly in his letter to the Corinthians. Second one, he says, therefore, we don't give up, even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing in us an absolutely incomparable, eternal weight of glory. [00:36:10] Our momentary light affliction, 60, 70, 80, 90 years, is producing in us an absolutely incomparable, eternal weight of glory. [00:36:24] So we don't focus on what is seen, on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary. [00:36:31] What is unseen is eternal, eternal, beloved. [00:36:36] So today, yes, we count the cost, and I invite you to do that before you leave today. Consider the parable. Consider what Jesus tells you. Consider what it means to be the person who says, if I got to sell everything to have it, I'll sell everything. Nothing in my life has closed hands. It all has open hands in front of Jesus. Consider that. [00:36:56] Consider what that means soberly way what it means to live a life that actively fights to kill sin and see the glory of God. We fight to die into ourselves, and we pour ourselves out for God's glory and the benefit of others. We seek to love God and love others. We walk in the footsteps of Jesus. We should expect to give ourselves just as Jesus did. [00:37:18] But, beloved, don't sit in sober reflection without also considering your gain. [00:37:28] Look at what's actually promised to you. [00:37:31] You may have to miss out on this world, but you get Jesus. [00:37:36] You get treasure, real treasure, treasure worth holding on to, treasure worth giving things up for, treasure worth having. Band if you want to come back up, we're going to do things a little different to end out today. [00:37:53] Normally we end and I say, hey, let's sit it and let's pray and let's connect with God. And that's a beautiful thing. And if God is stirring in your heart in some way and you're weighing through something, I would invite you to do that. Find a space where you can get on your knees and pray. Or grab one of our pastors and deacons. We would delight to pray with you and work through conviction God is placing on your heart. [00:38:13] But we're not going to set aside the next five minutes for that. You can do that, right? Like, don't miss if God is convicting you. But, guys, I think it comes down to this. [00:38:23] When we consider the gospel, when we consider the love of Christ, we consider the extent to which Jesus loves us. [00:38:35] We think of him as that merchant finding us, finding the pearl with a smile on his face, with joy, handing over everything, pouring himself out, not counting equality with God, a thing to be exploited, but humbling himself. Being poured out and found in likeness. When we consider the work of Christ on our behalf, the love with which he loves us, the treasure that he has handed us on a platter. [00:39:06] Beloved, it's worth celebrating. [00:39:10] It's worth our joy. [00:39:13] So I want to invite us today to do that. [00:39:16] Some of you guys, I know worship time, maybe is a little different for you, a little awkward for you. Some of us like to sit. Some of us like to reflect. And that's beautiful if that's you today. But I want to challenge you. [00:39:27] I want you to consider expressing your gratitude, your thankfulness, your joy to christ today. [00:39:35] Look, many of us don't sing. Well, I include myself. [00:39:40] Sing anyway. [00:39:42] Sing loud. [00:39:43] Drown out Chris. Make Adam go out of key because he hears you guys over the band. [00:39:49] It'd be worth it. [00:39:51] Sing loud. [00:39:53] Shout amen. [00:39:54] Give Christ your thank you. Let's practice some gratitude, some joy, some adoration this morning. See how that takes us out of this space and into our week. Beloved, stand with me. Let's worship our God.