I have always been a car nut. When I was fourteen I asked my dad if he was going to buy me a car when I turned 16. He told me that if I wanted a car, I had better start saving for one. So I did. I worked hard all summer helping to paint houses and stuck every penny I could into a savings account so that when I turned 16 I would have the coolest car in the world to drive around in. When I turned 15 I took my drivers permit as soon as I could and began driving with my parents in the car. I enjoyed driving but let’s face it, it’s hard to look cool and pick up chicks in your moms station wagon.
So I kept saving. Birthday money was banked, Christmas money was banked, and the money I received from lawn mowing and delivering papers was socked away. One day my dad came home from work and told me that a friend of his rebuilds cars and had a beautiful little red and black car that I should go look at. So I grabbed the keys, jumped into the family car and waited for my dad to join me so I could drive us there.
When we arrived at his friends house there was a black and red two door hatchback quietly resting on the side of the garage. With the giddy of a small child on Christmas morning I approached the car for an inspection. But long before I actually inspected it, I knew that this little baby was mine.
My dad and I negotiated a fair price for the car then dad’s friend said that it wasn’t quite done yet so I would have to come back in a couple of months. I could hardly wait to get my hands on the car but it was a good thing he needed more time to fix it because I didn’t have all the money anyway. So for the next two months I worked and worked and saved everything I could so that when the magic moment came I would have enough money to pay for the car.
When I saved up enough money my dad took me over to the man’s house to pick up the car. She was a beauty. It had everything I had ever dreamed about, four tires, a windshield, doors, and the promise of unlimited freedom lurking just overt the horizon.
After paying for the car I fired it up and realized that it was a stick shift and I had never driven a stick shift before. Somehow I managed to drive it home and even thought I stalled it at every intersection I was the proudest 15 and ¾ year old on the road that day. When we got home I just sat and drooled over my very own brand new used car. I had spent everything on something that was of great value to me. I washed it and waxed it and treasured it because I wanted a car more than anything else in the world.
Jesus wanted to let everyone know how valuable the kingdom of God is so he put it in such a way that everyone listening would understand. Jesus is continuing his talk to a large number of people who are seated on the side of a hill. He is out just a little ways from shore explaining that the kingdom of God is more valuable than treasure or other material objects. In Matthew 13 Jesus says:
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.
There didn’t used to be any banks so ancient people used to take their money and treasures and bury them in the ground. It earth was their safety deposit box. Late at night they would hide their treasure so that nobody except the field owner would know where it was buried. But on occasion the owner of the field would die or have something else happen and someone else would come across the treasure. The point here isn’t buried in the story, the point is the story. The point is that is you find something of value you will do anything to get it.
This was common occurrence to everyone who was listening to him, but just to make sure they got it, he said it another way.
45"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:44-45 NIV
What’s the point? The point is that the kingdom of heaven is so valuable that a wise person will do anything they can to get it. A wise person will take everything they have and give it up for something even better.
Jesus used money and things to illustrate a spiritual point because everyone understands money. When I worked really hard to buy a car I really wanted. So if the kingdom of heaven is so valuable, why doesn’t everybody do everything they can to be a part of it?
I think it’s because value is often in the eye of the beholder. What has value and what doesn’t is really up to personal interpretation. What some people think are valuable have no value at all to others.
Several years ago I used to heat our house with wood. Every fall I would go out and cut wood with my friend Roger Raether and Bob Bosma. I never liked cutting wood because it was a lot of back breaking work but I liked the price. It was free except for the labor so we would take a Saturday here and there in the fall to cut wood and pile it up for the winter.
In addition to cutting wood I used to get the wood scraps from a store called “The Wooden Bird.” They make beautiful hand carved bird decoys and animal decoys out of wood. Every decoy costs from 50 to 250 bucks and they are really nice decorative pieces to put on the mantle. Their shop used to be right here in St. Boni so every couple of weeks I would stop in and pick up their leftover wood scraps to burn in my wood burner. Right before Thanksgiving I stopped in to pick up a load of scraps. I walked in the front door and told them I was there to pick up the wood. The man wheeled out two bins like usual to the loading doors and helped me load them in the truck. Usually the wood was just chunks of pine but this time they looked like decoys. I asked him if he was sure that he was giving me the right wood because they were unpainted decoys. I noticed that they had a few cracks in them so I figured they were throwing them away because of the cracks. The man insisted that I had the right stuff and waved me goodbye. I took my load of wood and promised that I would bring his carts back as soon as I got the chance. He told me there was no hurry and I could even bring them back after Thanksgiving. I went home and unloaded the decoys in a big pile in the basement.
The wood burner was low so I grabbed a handful of decoys and threw them in the furnace. That dry pine burned nice and hot so I threw in a few more to ward of the cold. Then I went back to work. After work I went home and reloaded the furnace with decoys and had just enough time to bring back the carts before they closed for the long weekend.
When I pulled up in my truck two men ran out of the building and demanded that I bring back the decoys. I asked why and with urgency in his voice he told me that I had taken their entire inventory of Christmas decoys worth tens of thousands of dollars by mistake.
He went on and on about calling the police and trying to find my vehicle and driving around for the past three hours in a complete panic because I had taken their entire Christmas inventory of decoys worth thousands of dollars by mistake.
I pointed at the guy who gave them to me and he just gave me the deer in the headlights look and walked back into the building. Then the manager said do you still have them because they are incredibly valuable. Each decoy had taken them over a week to make and they needed to get them back.
Rather stunned I told them that I had burned a few of them but would bring the rest back. Then I went home and carefully loaded a few hundred decoys back into the bins and brought them back to the Wooden Bird. Value is often in the eye of the beholder. The decoys had no value to me other than a little heat. But to the Wooden bird, the decoys were worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Jesus used treasure and pearls to illustrate a spiritual point because everyone understands treasure. He didn’t say what the buried treasure was worth he just said the person that found it sold everything he had to acquire it. The treasure was worth more than everything else in the world.
Jesus understood just how valuable the kingdom of God is to the point that he was willing to die for it. On numerous occasions Herod and the other authorities said all you have to do is shut up about this kingdom of God stuff and you will live. But Jesus in essence said no way. The kingdom of God is worth dying for. And that’s exactly what he did.
The kingdom of heaven Jesus spoke about and died for is so valuable because it’s our creator’s desire for us. The kingdom of heaven doesn’t just refer to heaven; it refers to living in relationship with God right now on this earth and in eternal life in heaven. We were created to have a relationship with God, and that very relationship is worth more than anything else in the world. Why? Because the kingdom of God is full of peace, and health, and love, and grace, and hope, and joy, and fun, and life to in all it’s intended glory. Some it those we will experience in this life in part and all of it for certain in the life to come. That is just a little bit of what the kingdom of God is.
God could care less about money because he doesn’t need it. God could care less about copper of gold because he doesn’t use it. He could care less about TV’s because he sees everything. Material things and money don’t matter to God, what matters to God is you. Jesus is telling us that the relationship that we can have to the Father is more valuable than anything else. But that’s hard for us to see because we live in a material world full of material things that we place value on.
We might not be able to comprehend the complete value of the kingdom of heaven but listening to Jesus and knowing that he gave his life for us should give us a pretty good indication. The question is, does the kingdom of God have any value to you?
THE CHOICE IS UP TO YOU.
1. You can ignore the treasure.
You can pretend that it doesn’t exist. You can literally live your entire life denying that there is a God or that there is a purpose for you life. Millions of people do and they have no interest in spiritual things.
Imagine a brand new Cadillac sitting on the side of the road. All kinds of cars pass the Caddie from brand new to really old but none come even close to the value of the Cadillac. In the window of the car there is a sign that reads: “You may have this brand new Cadillac for free because it’s already been paid for.” Several drivers slow down to read the sign but most just ignore it busy minding their own business. Every once in a while someone stops and gets out of their car and drives away in the new free car but there is always another free car right behind the one that’s been given away. Every day thousands of cars pass right by the free Cadillac but almost everyone ignores it.
2. You can pretend you don’t need the treasure.
The free Cadillac has been on the side of the road for so long that people continue to ignore it simply forgetting that it is even there. Someone even mumbles “fools” as they pass by watching several people hug and jump into their brand new free car.
One person had a flat tire right in front of the free Cadillac and even changed their tire right in front of the free car but refused to accept the offer to take the free car. Another person pushed their car by the free Cadillac insisting that they could handle everything them self.
3. You can have the treasure for yourself.
But a few people see the car, read the sign, understand the value, and accept the offer. They trade in their old car for a new one. The only instructions are read “Enjoy, and use this vehicle to reach the destination.”
Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is worth trading everything we have of value for, it’s that valuable. We can deny that the kingdom has any value, but we are only deceiving ourselves. We can ignore the kingdom of heaven, but that doesn’t diminish its value. Or we can accept the kingdom of heaven and enjoy it.
In closing I want to ask you this: How valuable is the kingdom of heaven to you? Are you willing to give some of your time to expose other people to God? How valuable is the kingdom of God to you? Are you willing to invest in expanding it? God says if we truly love him we will give generously to support his causes. Do you love God more than money? If you say yes, will your check stubs validate that? Do you love the kingdom of God more than sin? If God is worth everything to you, are you willing to stand up for him with your peers?
Is loving God more valuable to you than getting revenge? Do you value God’s teachings enough to read about them in the Bible? Are you willing to grow past your hurts, habits, and hang-ups and step into God’s plans for you? How far are you willing to go for the kingdom of God? How valuable is your relationship with God?
I know a lot of people who love the kingdom of God. I watched them leave here on Friday night to go serve the homeless. I have seen them teach our kids and serve in the nursery. I have seen them serve on the school board. I have listened to them counsel the hurting. I have seen them show grace to a co-worker who betrayed them. You have seen people just like me who participate in the kingdom of God because they understand how valuable it is.
I don’t think that any of us have any idea just how valuable the kingdom of God is. Because if we fully comprehended just how valuable it is, it would blow us away. This morning I want to leave with this question: How valuable is the kingdom of heaven to me? How valuable is the kingdom of God to you? We don’t need to respond to that question because our actions will speak for us. AMEN.
