|giv| Week 1
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Excited to be here with y'all this morning. We are in the first week of our Give Series. And every year, right after Thanksgiving, we pause in whatever we're normally doing and we begin our Give Series.
And we live in a place that is overwhelmed by consumerism. It's just that it's the air we breathe. So that as Christians and American Christians, it's possible for us to push back on some of the tides of our culture that are coming at us and things that we look and we say, no, scripturally, this is wrong. We can't participate in that. We can't live like that. And for us to completely miss consumerism.
For us to just walk along perfectly normal. Everything's fine with consumerism, but push back in other areas. And so we want to intentionally take this time every year to just say, hey, let's remember that we're eternal people and that our hope is not here. That the the American concept of I'll be more happy if I have more stuff is incorrect. Correct. And so let's pause and intentionally seek to be generous at this time.
Last year in our Give Series, we were able to give away twenty five thousand dollars. Yeah. And able to give away some man hours and some work to try to help at Bethel Christian Camp as they renovate as we help renovate space for a new family to move in as the director over there. And I'm excited to get to announce what our gift project is this morning. Later, turn to Matthew chapter 13. We're going to be looking at a very short parable in Matthew chapter 13 this morning.
On Christmas morning at my house, we have our bedrooms are on one side of the house and there's a hallway that leads to the main part of our house. And I build a barricade in the hallway and tell my sons on threat of death and the cancellation of Christmas that they are not allowed down the hall past the barricade. And this is done because I think it makes good sense. And also because my wife and her older brother every Christmas got up at three a.m., went and looked at everything they were getting. And then on Christmas morning, we're tired and unenthused. There's actually home videos of their parents looking at each other like the kids got a bicycle and they're looking at each other like, I don't know, I guess they don't care.
And it's because they they did care at three a.m. when you weren't there. And so we set this up and what I'll do is I'll get on the other side of it and I can see them and I can see into our living room area and I can and I'll stand and I'll go. Oh, oh, oh, oh, there's some stuff out here. Oh, it's going to be pretty good. I think, oh, I think we're going to have a good morning. I just try to play it up a little bit and make them wait a little bit and get them a little amped up.
And the passage we're going to read this morning, in some ways, I feel like Jesus is doing that, that he's standing in a position where he can see something we can't see. And he's trying to help us understand if you could see if you're in my vantage point and you can see what I can see. This is how you would live. This is how you would behave. This is how you would feel. And so Jesus, because he can see what we can't see, is trying to help us wrap our heads around something this morning.
So we're going to read just a very short parable to one verse. Matthew chapter 13, verse 44. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Let's pray.
Lord, this parable is simple, but it's profound. And Lord, I ask that by the work of your spirit, you would help us to believe this this morning. That this would go beyond a truism that is in our mind, but it would become rock solid truth that is in our hearts and that guides the way we live. And work and labor and spend our time and our money. And we ask for your help and your grace in the name of Jesus this morning. Amen.
Let's read that again. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. All right. So the first thing I think we need to answer.
Is what is the kingdom of heaven? Because he says the kingdom of heaven is like and he's going to tell us some aspect of the kingdom of heaven, but it would help us to have some understanding of the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus in Matthew has been talking about the kingdom of heaven nonstop. So I'm going to give you a quick definition and then we'll expand on it briefly. The kingdom of heaven is the effective rule and reign of Jesus. Or the kingdom of heaven is the applied rule and reign of Jesus.
So if you just think about heaven and your kind of concept from that, and hopefully it's got some biblical groundings, but if you think about heaven that you've got a good start. There's no sin. There's no pain. There's no death. There's no sorrow. There's joy and delight.
Love, pleasure, forgiveness, hope, love, relationship, grace. That it's the application of the work of the cross. It's all the good things that Jesus came to purchase on our behalf. So that when Jesus, we celebrate Christmas and we set up nativities and we see mangers. There's this picture of Jesus coming. He's God in the flesh coming to rescue us.
And what he did was he came to bring the kingdom. The first thing he preaches is repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That God's kingdom is in breaking on the world. And so the kingdom of heaven is certainly our eternity. But it is also breaking in on us now.
And so what Jesus is saying is if you understand the kingdom, what I've come to accomplish, what my rule and reign is like, this is how you'll behave. Okay. So that's the kingdom. He says the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. I love the word treasure. Because it just, do you want treasure?
Yes. Like it just encapsulates. Like one of your goals forever has been to find some buried treasure. Or a map to buried treasure. Like ever since you watched the Goonies, you were like, this would be great. I want in on this.
I want some buried treasure. And you may be, as a child, were convinced that it was more likely to happen and that treasure was more likely to be found. But this is a thing, this idea that we want treasure. And that's what he's tapping into. He goes, you want treasure, right? And the answer is, yes, I'd love some treasure.
That sounds great. He says, well, that's what the kingdom of heaven is like. It's a treasure. So here's what he says. It's like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and he buys that field.
So there's this picture of this man. He's traveling through a field. It's not his field, but they didn't have the same kind of like trespass laws. He's allowed to walk through the field. He just can't be tearing things up or stealing things. He's walking through the field.
Maybe he's got a staff and he's walking and it's like sand noise, gravel noise, sand noise. He says, dunk, dunk. And he thinks, maybe this is treasure because that's what you think, right? If you find something buried, there's this moment. I don't care if it's in your backyard or whatever. There's this moment where you're like, treasure.
That's what he does. His little heart flutters. He lays the stick down. He starts digging. Wood. Wood.
It's a good sign. You know what you hide in wood? Treasure. He starts working his way around. He finds the edge of like a chest. What kind of chest?
Probably a treasure chest. He works his way around. He keeps digging. Now, at some point, he was like early, he was a little bit like he's, you know, trying to act a little nonchalant about it. As soon as he starts getting to the corner and this, I mean, this man's, he looks like a cartoon dog. Like he's digging.
He gets this, he finds it. It's the top of this thing. And now he's going to try to get to open. And it is a chest. And you know, his heart is beating because this is either the beginning of the rest of his life where he finds treasure or it's the beginning of law and order special victims unit. There's something, something's happening though.
You don't bury a box for no reason. Y'all, he opens it up. It's treasure. Gold. Gems. A lamp.
He rubs it. Nothing. Still expensive though. Treasure. And it apparently can kind of tell like this is some old treasure. They don't probably know this is here.
So what's he do? He stares at it. Is captivated by it. And then he slams it down, closes it up and buries it again. And like tries to Mark where it was, but also tries to, you know, he's like sprinkling like leaves and stuff on it or little bits of grass. Like nobody's been here.
Nobody dug. He goes over here and like scuffs up the ground. So it looks like this is just a thing people do around here. There's just spots like this, but he marks his spot and he hides it again. He leaves and we don't know. I don't know if he walked out and saw a for sale sign in front of it and was like, or if he just was like, I'm going to find out who owns it and I'm going to put an offer on this.
Just going to see if they'll take it. He has to try to maybe play it cool. Hey, I saw your trashy garbage field you had over there. And I'm assuming you're not doing anything with it or any crops over there. It doesn't seem like anything could grow. And I was thinking maybe I'd buy it from you to be nice to you.
And the person's like, I'll sell it. He sells all that he has. And how does he sell all that he has? In his joy. Now, if you knew him, he starts looking kind of crazy. He sells his house.
He sells everything in his house. He sells his little piece of property. He sells his new donkey he just got. He sells everything. Everything. Everything.
Like I almost picture this man barefoot walking over there with the stuff that he's going to buy this with. He sells everything. And if you knew him, you'd be going, what are you doing? He's like, I'm buying that field. That field? In this market?
You know why that's been sitting there, right? That field? But he knows something that they don't know. He knows that that field is worth everything. Because there's something there that they don't know about. And so in his joy, whistling, skipping, he goes down and he buys that field.
And Jesus says, if you knew what the kingdom was like, that's what you look like. If you could imagine what the kingdom is like, well, that's what you'd look like. Because the kingdom is worth everything. certainly this is salvation. Certainly it means that anything that would stand in the way of you surrendering your life to Jesus, get rid of it. This is not a call to earn your salvation. It's not at all.
And we understand that because Jesus came to earn our salvation through his death. But it is a call to value what Jesus has accomplished as the ultimate treasure. and to live our lives in such a way that the kingdom is advanced. That more people come to know Jesus. From the moment that man dug that treasure up and buried that treasure again, do you know what he thought about? That treasure. That was it.
He didn't go to work. He did not show back up and do his normal duties. Why would he? He has a treasure. What he did was he leveraged everything he possibly had towards that end goal. It captured his heart.
It captured his imagination. And the truth is everybody in this room has something that's captured captured our imagination. It's captured our heart. You have something this year that you daydreamed about that you look forward to. You have something that drove you forward to work, to labor. I don't know what it was.
I don't know if you dreamed about romance this year and you just kept thinking if I could just get this to work out, if I could just get in this type of relationship, if I could just have this happen for me, then I'd be okay. I'd feel good. I don't know what you treasured this year. I don't know if it was a promotion or just the idea of progressing in life. Just so y'all know, that's something that America has sold us and we have bought it wholesale. If you've ever said the phrase, I should be farther along by now and you are not talking about following Jesus, that's something America has sold you on.
I should have a little bit more money. I've been in this house for a while. I'd probably be in a bigger house by now. I've had this car for a while. I should probably have a new car by now. I should probably have learned how to make my clothes match by now.
Like, I should have just done some things by now. Should have just moved forward a little bit in life. I don't know. I don't know what you dreamed about, what you longed for. Some of you work really, really hard, but it's just because you love resting. I'm going to work so hard, I'll never have to work again.
I'm going to take so many naps. I don't know. But what Jesus says is, as he stands with a vantage point we don't have, he says, oh, if you knew what the kingdom was like, it'd be hard to think about anything else. If you knew what the kingdom was like, you'd give everything for it. And it's such a simple picture. If you thought, what would I do this week if I found out there was treasure buried in my backyard, but it was 20 feet deep?
Tell you, I'd figure out how to dig a 20-foot hole. Coming to work? I'm at work. There's treasure here. And no, not the job you're talking about. Like, that's how we would be.
Like, that's the concept he's getting after and he's saying, no, no, no. And I know I'm not supposed to say that because I'm a preacher and I'm supposed to treasure this more, but I'm just telling you, like, that's how it works with our hearts that we would want to find that. And that's what he's saying. That if you really knew what this was, you would give everything for it. You ever seen the show Storage Wars? Yeah, no battle in it whatsoever, just for the record.
It's people who bid on storage units, which is, again, a nice little American hallmark of consumerism. We don't have enough room in our homes to hold all our stuff. So we buy, we rent closets from people so that we can put our stuff in there and visit it from time to time. And it's a good industry. It's booming. But people periodically don't go back for whatever reason to get their stuff.
And after a while, they haven't paid for their units. It's forfeited over to the storage unit people and they have a TV show where they auction off storage units. Now, in the show, you're not allowed to walk into the storage unit. They just roll it up. It's an invisible barrier that you're not allowed to pass, but you can peek in there. And they can try to guess what's in there.
Is that the kind of stuff I'd like to sell? Is there going to be any? And these people are modern day little treasure hunters hoping that there's something in that box that's worth something. And the reason the show is fun is because we like treasure hunting and we're hoping that they bought either something amazing or nothing at all. That's the point of the show. I want you to open a box full of shredded paper or a Fabergé egg.
That's why I'm watching. But they're peeking in and they're trying to decide is this worth buying? And they put a valuation in their head and then they put where I'm willing to bid and then they auction it off. Now, the show would be ruined if they all got to show up with appraisers, walk into the storage unit and appraise everything. I think the whole process would be ruined, not just the TV show. This wouldn't work anymore.
But let's say you and I go on the show and we decide to cheat because we're like that. And we smuggle an appraiser in the night before, you know, like Ocean's 11 style, but it's like Ocean's 3 because we didn't have that many people. And we sneak them in, our appraiser appraises it and then hides in their forest and then we just peek in and they're just going to give us a little signal to let us know how much to bid. And let's say, no matter what the auctioneer's doing, our appraiser just keeps going. It's worth it. Can I get 200?
Yep. That's why you got to make noises. You can't just, you got to say, oh yeah, like that. I'll do that part because it's the funnest part. But they keep doing it and every time we look, he's saying up.
And y'all, that's what Jesus does with the kingdom. If you looked at him and said, is it worth this? He goes, more than that. If you looked at him and said, let me ask you a question, Lord. Is the kingdom worth instead of me treating my home like a retreat from the world, figuring out how to get to know my neighbors, even though I hate that? More than that.
Absolutely. Is the kingdom worth me showing up to work earlier or staying later so that I can get to know my coworkers? Is it worth me actually eating lunch in the break room instead of in my car listening to true crime broadcast? More than that. Is it worth me setting aside money every month and trying to work to increase that every year so that more and more of my money goes away to bless the poor and to work towards kingdom causes and to support missionaries and churches and wherever I see you at work? Is it worth that?
Yeah. More than that. Lord, if you call me to serve you and I've got to go overseas and I might not ever be able to get married, I might not ever get to live out what I thought my life was going to be, is it actually worth that? More than that. Lord, what if I have to give up on my career? What if I end up not really looking like a success?
What if I give away so much money or so much of my time that we live in a smaller house in a smaller place if I don't get to keep up with my peers? Is it worth that? More than that. Jesus is saying if you could see the kingdom it's worth everything and you'd give up everything for it. And so the two questions that I think are helpful for us to consider after we've thought through what has captured my imagination? What's captured my heart?
What am I actually pursuing? The two questions I think we need to ask is what stands in the way of me pursuing the kingdom? What stands in the way? I've had people before tell me I'll follow Jesus but I'm not going to give blank up and they'll pick a sin. I'm not going to give that up. I've just said well you're not going to follow Jesus.
This is not how it works. He's the king. You are not. The kingdom is his kingdom. You don't walk in and dictate the rules. What stands in your way?
Because if there's something that stands in the way of you following Jesus it's not worth it. Second question is what do I have that I can leverage for the kingdom? Because maybe you have relationships. Maybe you have some social capital. Maybe you live in a neighborhood and nobody knows Jesus. Instead of moving out of that neighborhood you just need to use your home as a beacon for the gospel.
There are some people who are medical doctors that need to not make a bunch of money in the U.S. and go overseas to be missionaries as Jesus commands. And there are some people who are medical doctors who need to be godly, Christian, humble, generous medical doctors here. Who love and serve and know their coworkers. Who share the gospel with them. Who share the gospel with those who are hurting and dying here. And who give away their money generously for the sake of the other people who need to go.
So what's in the way and what do I have that I can leverage for the sake of the kingdom? And y'all there's no blanket answer to that. That's submitted to Jesus. But you go to him and you say I value you above everything else. I value the kingdom above everything else. What do you want?
I had a pastor one time said that it's like you took a piece of paper that was a contract and you signed your name at the bottom of a blank sheet of paper and you slide it across the table. To Jesus and you say fill in the terms. My name's on it. I trust you. Fill in the terms. I want to read a quote.
It's one of my favorite quotes. If you've been around a while you've probably heard me read this before. If you stay around for the next five years you'll hear it again. This is a there was a missionary named John G. Patton who accepted the call to do mission work in the New Hebrides Islands. This was right around 1900s right before and there were some missionaries that had been sent to the New Hebrides that had gotten out of the boat were immediately murdered and eaten by cannibals within minutes of showing up.
And this was well known that the first missionary expedition to this set of islands had gone very poorly. There were some other islands around where things had been working and John G. Patton felt called and said I'm going to this island. And when he was talking it through some of the leadership in his church there was a man named Mr. Dixon who was an older gentleman in the church and one of the leaders in the church and he just at some point as they were talking it through he got overwhelmed and he just said the cannibals you're going to be eaten by cannibals. It was like he couldn't get through to John G.
Patton like this is what's going to happen to you. You're going to be eaten by cannibals. Like this is not safe. You cannot devote your life to this. This will just go poorly. You are going to be eaten by cannibals.
And we have John's response in a letter that he eventually wrote to Mr. Dixon. And I'll read this quote from his letter. He said Mr. Dixon you are advanced in years now and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave there to be eaten by worms. I confess to you that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus it will make no difference to me whether I'm eaten by cannibals or by worms.
And in the great day my resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer. I love that because I think John Patton understood what Jesus was saying in Matthew chapter 13 verse 44. it's worth everything. There's the kingdom is a treasure to be valued above everything and if I can but live and die honoring and serving Jesus what else is there? If you don't know Jesus then whatever stands in the way of that you need to get rid of it because his kingdom is wonderful and glorious and his forgiveness and salvation are graciously freely offered to you and if you know Jesus you will spend eternity loved welcomed cared for in a place where there is no sin and there is no pain and there is no discomfort and there is no relational strife we have a treasure and it's the kingdom and we're to live now leveraging everything for it earlier this year we stood up and we said that we thought we had rightly as a church we had rightly identified and understood the idea that we're missionaries wherever we are that if the Lord has placed you somewhere he's placed you there with intent and that you should not think that missionaries are only people who go overseas but they're there that you are to be a missionary in your neighborhood in your job and we're we're fine with that we believe that's true and we've said that over and over and over and over again but what we said earlier this year was that we had not done a good enough Job of helping our church understand that some of us are meant to be missionaries somewhere else that some of us are meant to surrender as John G.
And over and over again but what we said earlier this year was that we had not done a good enough Job of helping our church understand that some of us are meant to be missionaries somewhere else that some of us are meant to surrender as John G. Patton surrendered and go and that right now we live in a world where there are more unreached people groups more lost people than ever before and we showed you this map and we said that that red
Is bad that the green areas are reached areas the yellow areas are kind of in the middle and that the red is unreached areas and the reason the red is red is because it's hard to get there it's hostile to the gospel but that we're supposed to go because we have an eternal treasure that cannot be taken from us there was a young lady in our church Jamie Kern who began doing an internship with us this summer trying to discern
The call to mission work what we had said was that we were uniquely positioned as a church to try to get to that red area to that 1040 window to that section of the world that is hard to get to because there are three mission organizations that office in our building and so we said God by his grace has given us an on ramp to that area and that we need to take it
And there was a young lady who did a joint internship with our church in 1040 Hope during the summer and then she left and went to Lebanon for three months to prayerfully discern the call to missions she's been in Lebanon for three months and Lebanon is a more advanced country over there but is in turmoil right now their financial system has fallen apart American money
US dollars still do okay over there but everything else is millions of dollars to buy bread like it's there's rolling blackouts it's in a very bad state she went and spent three months there crimes on the rise it's a difficult place to be right now she went and spent three months over there prayerfully discerning am I supposed to be here learning Kurdish because she's been serving with a Kurdish church Kurdish speaking church in Lebanon
And the Kurdish people are an unreached people group that means there's almost none no no gospel witness among those people at all and so she's trying to learn Kurdish so that she can help this church that's trying to plant among the Kurdish people that church is a few years old it has like 150 people 100 of them have been baptized in the Kurdish that are Kurdish
People's placing faith in Jesus and Jamie Kern has committed felt called by the Lord and committed to stay in Lebanon at least for a year holding open handed to the Lord as what he has next and she's sorted through some of this we've had conversations through some
Of this I think I'm having to give this up I think I'm having to give this up and she keeps circling back around to I think it's worth it and so what she'll be doing for the next year in Lebanon is she'll be working with and for 1040 Hope continuing to learn Kurdish which by the
Way her Kurdish teacher is a Muslim and she's been able to build a great relationship with this lady and her family and be praying for that that she would have an opportunity as she learns Kurdish to share the gospel with this lady but she's going to continue to serve this Kurdish
Church and she's going to be a liaison for 1040 Hope to do in the field coordinator for internships and for missions teams so that when internships go and missions go and
Mission teams go that she's going to help them get on the ground figure out where they are get to the right place and
Help them overseas so she's going to serve the Kurdish church while she's there and internships because she said that she was praying through Lord what do
You want she just got stuck on the passage where it says the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few she said okay
Lord if I can be here and help get more laborers here that's what I want to do so our gift project this year
Is two fold the first thing we want to do is raise $15,000 right now for a vehicle we've been renting vehicles for her right
Now while she's been there originally we weren't but the state of Lebanon has gotten worse and worse and there have been more abductions
For people who are using Ubers and ride shares there have been more crime and stuff for people who are walking on the street
There's been some hairy situations when she's on the street for 1040 hope that she will be able to drive and that car will
Look something like this that's a car for sale in Lebanon right now I've been told to not guarantee you that we will buy
That car because we gotta get the money first and get it to Lebanon and buy a car and that might not still be
In that parking lot ready to sell but if you google it is about $15,000 to buy a vehicle in American dollars and so
We are trying to raise that amount of money to buy that car right now and this is for a couple of purposes it's
One so that she has safe transportation all the time it's also so that when interns go and missions teams go they have automatic
Transportation that's why we're buying something bigger than what she needs so that she can help get people around and use her car for
Some ministry while she's there and then it also helps the 1040 hope team because if after a year the Lord leads for her
To come back or to go somewhere else they still have a vehicle there that they can continue to use for the same purpose
And so that's our first thing that we want to do missionary in the Kurdish church and so among this unreached people group there's
A southern baptist pastor with them and she's able to serve them as well through 1040 hope so we're excited to be able to help
Her do this the second thing we want to do is fund her mission work for a year which is $29,225 that is for housing
All the necessities that she will need that's her salary she will have some basically like get out of the country money that's sitting there ready for
Her to go if she needs to be able to leave quickly so that's already built into how they fund and that's her insurance
That will be given in pledges so that we will commit to build it into your budget to raise support for one year for
Her to do the work that she's going to be doing that's our hope is that we will give $15,000 right now and $29,000
For one year of missionary support and that's a lot but we're trying as we follow Jesus to submit our lives to him whatever he
Asks and we're trying to intentionally in this moment take our wallets press on our heart a little bit and remind ourselves that our
Treasure is not here but that we have an eternal hope and an eternal home and it's worth everything and we're just trying to
Collectively as a church say we believe you we believe Jesus when he says that so let's follow him and we're excited to get the
Opportunity to do it and we'll celebrate however the Lord leads for us to be generous in this season let's pray Lord thank you
Thank you for the hope of salvation that we have we thank you Lord that your kingdom is truly valuable and that you came
To rescue and to redeem and to purchase us out of our sin and Lord we ask that we would live with eternity set
In our hearts so that our normal life would look crazy to the people who don't know the treasure but that it would make
Perfect sense to everybody who knows what your kingdom is like may we be a church that values you above everything else and in
Our joy gives up everything we can for your kingdom in Jesus name amen band is going to come back up we're going to
Sing and in a moment Spencer will give a few more specific instructions on how we get to participate in our gift project this year
But I'm excited for us to get to step out in faith in this way