THE TREASURE OF PAIN
REV 21:21
Sermon by: Pastor John Bloch
Firestone Park Baptist Church. Akron, Ohio
A man was exploring some caves by the sea shore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled the clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn't look like much but they caught the mans attention and he took them out of the cave with him. The man walked along the shore line and every now and then he would throw one of the clay balls out into the ocean as far as he could till he dropped one onto a rock and the clay ball cracked open. Inside the clay ball was beautiful, precious stone - treasure in clay.
Excited them man started breaking open all the clay balls. Each one contained a precious stone. from the 20 or so clay balls he had left he found thousands of dollars of precious stones. Then, it struck him. He had been walking down the beach for a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 clay balls out into the ocean. Instead of thousands of dollars he could have had tens of thousands of dollars, but he had just thrown it away.
Its like that with people as well. We look at someone, maybe even ourself's, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.
We see that as less important that someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we haven't taken the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and a brilliant gem begins to shine.
We look at the old dry clay, gray and dull. It means nothing to us at all. We see nothing of worth in it, nothing to be proud of, nothing to treasure. However, when the clay ball was broken, when it was damaged and fell apart a treasure could be seen. After the damage, after the pain, after the hurt only then could we see something of worth, something to hold onto.
I've said that Christianity is the only so called religion that can measure its success by its failures and some have looked at me and said that they didn't agree with me so today we are going to look at success, a treasure, Actually a pearl. Then we are going to see that a failure, an injury had to have taken place to produce that pearl.
Please turn to the book of Revelation, chapter 21, verse 21 and stand when you get there.
Rev. 21:21
21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
Rev 21:21 (KJV)
So what we are looking at is a glimpse of what the gates of Heaven look like. Scripture tells us that this wall around the city has 12 gates, 12 gates made from 12 pearls. Did you get that? Each gate is made from one pearl! That must be one giant pearl isn't it? The value of the gates alone would be amazing. You all know how i need to break things down so that i can understand them so i did the same with this. I wanted to understand the cost of a pearl and did some research. Pearls are prices by the size, the color, the shape, the luster, the surface quality, and the thickness of a clear coating around them. The worlds most expensive peal is known as "The pearl of Lau Tzu". Its 9 inches across, weighs 14 lbs. which is 31,000 carats, and its cost was 60 million dollars. So by doing just some simple math we can say that this pearl is worth just over 6.5 million dollars per inch across. So, lets take that math to the gates of heaven, now i haven't seen the gates and I haven't been able to find anyone who has been able to say exactly how big they are but i would say that its safe to say they are going to big enuff to walk threw right? Well, the rough opening of a two door gate is 90 inch's, that would give a value of about 58 trillion dollars! I'm not trying to put a monetary price on the rewards of being a Christian, im trying to show that God has no limit to his blessings. If that's the entrance way just think about the rest of His city. Now we are going to change gears real quick, we are going to go from the treasure to the pain, from the end value to the ultimate cost and to do this we need to understand how pearls are formed. First off they are formed in an oyster and its commonly known that they make pearls from sand however, something else needs to happen first. It needs to suffer from an injury. When an oyster gets an injury to its soft inner body and it has an open wound then a single pc. of sand gets into the wound it forms a defensive sack around the pc. of sand, its the oysters natural way of trying to heal, almost like a scab. The oysters body starts to form types of calcium that collect to this pc. of sand inside the sack and it hardens. This ultimately forms the pearl. We would not be able to enjoy the treasure of the pearl endless the oyster was injured.
We wouldn't have the gift of God endless endless a price was paid. We wouldn't have salvation endless someone paid the cost. We wouldn't have eternal life in the arms of Jesus endless he paid this price by stretching his arms out for us. Now, we could finish up right now, everyone in silent meditation and prayed of the price Jesus paid for you and me however, the same works for us. what treasure do you have in your life now because you endured the pain? Have you been able to build on hurt and turn it into a treasure? How many of us have suffered the loss of a loved one and it made us rethink the relationship we still have with those around us? How many of us came up dirt poor and have used that pain to be a good steward? How many of us look back on life and say its been so hard without being able to find the good in it? Just like the man who had been throwing clay balls into the ocean only to find out that he was holding onto a treasure? The other day I was asked if i regretted getting tattoo's. I said at first yes, but that's who I was at the time and when I lived in that world I didn't think anything at all was wrong about it. However, shortly after i gave myself to Christ the answer would have been yes. I was always trying to wear long sleeves trying to hid them from my new church family, they knew I had them but i still didn't want any of them to be able to see them. Then I really thought about them, and I thought of how God had placed a calling into my life and how he knew I had them and yet he still was calling me. I then saw my tattoo's as battle scar's, little wounds that had healed up and left behind a treasure. That I was now able to reach out to a generation of people who may think they cant go to church because of the way they look. I was now able to look at those people and say "look at me, i was in the same place you are now and i have the battle scars to prove it. If God was willing to open my eyes up, and i was willing to open my heart up, and Jesus himself was willing to come into my heart and change my life, He will do the same thing for you". I was listening to a young preacher on t.v. just lay it out, he was good, he was reaching out to the youth with real feeling. he understood the temptations of the world for them, and ultimatly it came out. He had spent 14 years of his life addicted to drugs and had turned that into a tool, he was able to not only heal from that but he turned it into a treasure and used his treasure to reach new believers to Christ.
Some years ago in Florida on a hot day a young boy decided he was going to swimming at the local swimming hole that was just behind his house. As the young boy was running down to the water he yelled to his mom that he was going swimming and he kicked off his shoes, pulled off his shirt and was doing a one legged hop down the dock trying to get his socks off and his mother walked down to pick all his cloth's up off the ground. The boy jumps into the water head first as his mom notices an alligator just on the edge of the shore close to the dock and she starts screaming for her son to get out of the water and she runs to the docks edge. It was too late, she couldn't see the alligator and her son had made a u-turn to get back to the shore, as soon as he reached his hands up to his mother for help getting out of the water the alligator grabbed onto both his legs. This turned into a horrifying tug of war between the mother and the alligator. The alligator was much to strong for the mother but the mother was much too passionate to let go. The neighbor had heard the screaming and ran down to the dock with his gun and shot the alligator. After weeks and weeks in the hospital the boy survived and the local news paper was doing and interview with the boy. The young boy proudly lifted his pant legs for the picture and said "but, look at my arms. I am some really great scars on them as well. I got all the scars on my arms from my mother's fingernails because my mom wouldn't let go".
You and I can identify with this young boy. We have scars too, maybe not as dramatic as his but we still have them. Some of the scars are unsightly and have caused us deep regret. But, some wounds are because God has refused to let go. In the midst of the struggle, he has been holding on to you. The scripture teaches that God loves you and that you are a child of God. He wants to protect you and provide for you in every way. But, sometimes we get into dangerous situaltions, the swimming hole of life is filled with peril, and if we foolishly forget that the enemy is waiting to attack. That's when the tug of war begins, and if you have the scars of his love on your arms be very, very grateful. He did not and will not let go. It may hurt when he holds tight, it may cause pain and discomfort when he has to pull you back out from danger and it might leave a scar but just remember, that when we are injured we can now form a pearl. We can now build on Gods love and show our treasure to the world.
