Sermon
4-3-16 parables of the kingdom pearl, treasure and the rich man
Matthew
13:44-46 New International Version (NIV) The Parables of the Hidden
Treasure and the Pearl
44 “The
kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he
hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that
field.
45 “Again,
the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When
he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought
it.
Luke
12:13-21 New International Version (NIV) The Parable of the Rich Fool
13 Someone
in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance
with me.”
14 Jesus
replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”
15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of
greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” 16 And
he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an
abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no
place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I
will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my
surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid
up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be
demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This
is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich
toward God.”
New series
I
have been reading a lot of Richard rohr lately. Good stuff. Makes
you think.
Some
of his stuff is in here some where.
4
weeks on the parables
Today
– the treasure, the pearl and the rich fool
These
get right at the heart of the kingdom
What
is this kingdom????????????????????????
The
apostles creed and the lack of mention of the kingdom in it
We
have left the kingdom thinking and made salvation a transaction, then we go on
w our lives
There is nothing sweet about these
parables.
Jesus
is pretty serious about this kingdom stuff
Jesus
isn’t just the nice guy who carries the lamb
Jesus
challenges people - he boldly confronts our arrogance
John
6:66
These parables ask..
What
is really important?
What
would you give up for it?
What
are things in life that you have sacrificed for?
Opening day at the k.
Time
for a couple of softball stories that illustrate how easy it is to get off
track and forget what is important.
Gary
Vaughn chainlink story
Gary
glenn story.
Bud
young and the 1500 pontoon boat. No 1200 no 800 pontoon boat. [move]
Self is still in the way
E.
Stanley Jones
Jesus
is God’s yes to me. I respond with “yes”. That is it. The beginning, the rest
of my life is my yes to God’s world.
We
say yes to Jesus once, then repeatedly say no no no no
The
disciples left everything to follow Jesus, except themselves.
Self
is concerned with position, place and power.
Un surrendered self is always in
the way.
Regarding
the ego, Stanley jones said,
Wherever
I go, I go too – and I spoil everything.
Are you dead to self? Dog is told to play
dead,
looks dead except his tail is wagging – so it is with many Christians…….. yes I've died to self, but my tail is still wagging.
We Christians like, 1 Timothy 6:10-12
10 For
the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Whew
that takes us off of the hook.
We
can still have all of our money as long as we don’t love it.
Problem
is, we do. We do love our stuff.
We
let ourselves off of the hook but don’t apply the principle.
Some people,
eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with
many griefs.
11 But you, man of God, flee
from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith,
love, endurance and gentleness. 12 Fight the
good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you
were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many
witnesses.
Richard rohr stuff
Why
does Jesus teach us to get stuff out of the way?
We
love it. We want it. We depend upon it
It
gets in the way.
At
the feeding event…….. video…….. I have come to believe that having too much is
just as bad as not having enough.
It
is hard to live a life of great compassion when your life is busy taking care
of all of your stuff
When
dad died, oh we had the stuff
Retired
minister moves to patio home
Stuff
is a diversion
We
never begin to experience true conversion until we die to our love for stuff
Yes
Jesus died for my sin on the cross, but he also showed us on the cross how to
live.
Emptying
yourself and making yourself available to others
The
path to salvation is marked by more than a sinner’s prayer.
You
can say a few words and keep your life, keep your pearls
The
path to salvation is also marked by release of desires and worry. It is
marked by walking away from the love of earthly things. Only then can we
be healed by god and be used by god to heal others
How to find happiness in this life
Get rid of selfish attitudes
I want what I want when I want it
If you don’t play w me, I am going home
If it is not my way, then I am going to quit
We
are imposing conditions on our happiness
If
you find this attitude within yourself, get rid of it
Sell
it to find what really matters
Lose
your life to find it.
The man w three wishes
I want my wife to die
I want my wife back
I don’t know what to ask for….money? health? Immortality? Love?
God says, ask to be happy no matter what
Find
your treasure not in things, not in circumstances, but in God
And so it is our 40 year anniversary.
Why
have we grown?
1. Good
worship and programs
2. You invited
your friends
3. We removed
barriers to growth. In other words, we set aside our comfort and personal
preference to reach others. We killed our sacred cows and reorganized to
pursue the mission.
This is unusual, and I praise you for it.
To have a heart that says I will give up my preference, I will sell it all for
the kingdom, this is what jesus was asking his followers to do.
Thank you for -
Seek ye first the kingdom
of God
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