BUYING UP OPPORTUNITIES
Matthew 13:44-46
January 2, 2011
Here we are, our first Sunday together in a brand new year. We’ve had our highs and lows this past year. We’ve experienced God’s grace in our times of grieving, as well as His power and provision on our Big Day this past November. We are living, I believe, in a time of epic opportunities as our world is experiencing constant upheaval, political unrest, financial instability, spiritual shallowness, unrealized expectations, and moral breakdown. All around us we have opportunities to showcase the love of Jesus to a needy world, longing for acceptance, meaning and a higher purpose for their lives. We have unprecedented opportunities to practice “pure and undefiled religion” as James calls for by helping orphans, widows, the poor, the homeless, and those affected by natural disasters. The sky is the limit to what God can do and wants to do through our local church this brand new year. The only thing that will limit what can be done is us.
Do you have any regrets about 2010? A broken relationship maybe? Poor decisions? That broken diet? Failure to keep up with your exercise program? Well, that’s not necessarily the regrets that I am talking about. I’m talking about missed opportunities. I’m talking about having allowed the tyranny of the urgent this past year to crowd out the achievement of the important. I know we will all have some regrets in this area. I know I do. So how can we make 2011 different? How can we look back on this year next year and be blown away by the miracles we trusted God for? The hundreds of people that trusted Jesus because we allowed the reality of our awesome salvation to impact us to the point that we became radical ambassadors for a heavenly country? The money that poured in because we became audacious givers so we could give even more to further God’s kingdom? How will we be able to shake our heads and just wonder at the awesome impossibility of what God was able to accomplish through this little band of kingdom believers? I believe a good start will be simply opening our eyes and our hearts to the kingdom opportunities all around us and buying up those opportunities as if they were precious treasure and priceless. We can either sit on our hands and let precious opportunities to change our world for Jesus slip by, or we can get serious, get passionate, and allow the grace of God to ignite our souls and cause us to become others-oriented as He has saved us and called us to be.
In the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 13 we have the words of Jesus concerning the kingdom of heaven. It is at this time that Jesus had been practically rejected by the Jews and begins to speak in parables, or practical stories with a parallel spiritual meaning not understood by the casual listener. He tells us in verses 13-15 that the people’s hearts were dull. That is, in their heart they weren’t looking for the real messiah – they were looking for a religious reconstructionist. For someone who would right the wrongs in the political landscape and bring Judaism back to prominence. They were the original religious consumerists. “What’s in it for me?”
In our text this morning we find Jesus talking about the kingdom of heaven being like a man finding a treasure in the field and a man finding a really expensive pearl and both sacrificed everything they had to buy up these great treasures.
Some say that Jesus Christ is the man and the treasure in the field represents potential believers who are in the world. Others say the treasure is the gospel of Christ, the gospel of the Messiah who is ever so precious. A man sees the gospel, the saving message of Christ as never before; that is, He understands the immense treasure of salvation. Either interpretation fits what is said, and we are probably safe in saying that neither one exhausts the meaning.
But for this morning’s message we will take the practical applications as they relate to the opportunities God places before us each day. We will learn to see the marvelous treasures hidden within opportunities to impact others for Jesus Christ. We will learn that sometimes they are hidden and other times they are in plain sight if we are actively looking for them.
Some Christians look at the parable of the treasure hidden in the field and are ashamed at the prospect that Jesus would have encouraged unethical behavior to illustrate a spiritual truth since the man withheld information from the current landowner so that he could profit.
In his New Testament Commentary, John McArthur explains it this way, “The point of the parable does not involve the ethics of what the man did, but rather his willingness to sacrifice everything he had in order to possess the treasure. But what he did was not unethical or dishonest.
In the first place, it is obvious that the treasure was not hidden by the present owner of the field and was unknown to him. Otherwise, he would have retrieved it before he sold the field. The man who bought the field obviously knew the owner was not aware of the treasure or he would not have offered to buy the field, knowing the treasure would not be included in the deal.
In the second place, rabbinic law provided that "if a man finds scattered fruit or money, it belongs to the finder." If a person came across money or other valuables that were obviously lost and whose owner was dead or unknown, the finder had the right to keep what was found.
In the third place, the basic honesty of the man is testified to by the fact that, had he been dishonest, he would simply have taken the treasure without any thought of buying the field. But he did not even use part of the treasure to buy the field; rather, he sells all that he has, and buys that field.”
So, back to our text, what lessons can we learn for this New Year concerning opportunities to make a difference for Jesus? Let’s take a look.
I. In Order to Benefit From an Opportunity, It Must Be Acted Upon.
In the treasure hidden in the field parable, a man stumbles upon treasure buried in someone else’s field. The man may have stumbled over part of the treasure or seen some of it protruding above ground as he happened to pass through the field. Or he may have been a hired hand who inadvertently dug it up while plowing or cultivating. In any case, the field did not belong to him, because, from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.
Some may call him an opportunist, but what’s wrong with that? He saw an opportunity and acted upon it. Many of us, me included, stumble upon opportunities every day to tell someone else about Jesus and don’t act upon it. Then we have the audacity to say that we wish we were able to see God do more in our lives, and have more of an impact on others for Him. Are we blind, or just lazy? I know for me, it’s sometimes a combination of both. I may be blind to an opportunity, simply because I’m not looking for it. Do you know anyone who always seems to find money on the ground? You do? Oh, you are that person? Why is that? It’s because you look for it everywhere you go. That’s why you always seem to find some. You’re always looking for it. Just like the person who always has the God stories about leading a person to Jesus at a restaurant, or the traveling salesman that left without an order, but left with new life in Christ, etc. It’s sometimes because I treat the opportunities like the person who doesn’t think it’s worth their time to stoop down and pick up that measly penny off the ground. We belittle the opportunity. Or we pre-qualify it by saying to ourselves, “they probably wouldn’t listen to me.”
As a church we are presented with potential-laden opportunities all the time. But we will never be the blazing billboard before the world broadcasting the awesome power of God for what He has done without acting upon the opportunities we recognize. We may think it’s too audacious. That’s what Gideon thought about the amazing opportunity he was presented with. You can read about it sometime in Judges 6. His response was just like ours often is. We’re just a small group. I’m one of the weakest ones in our group. It’s impossible. It’s no use trying. What did God say? “Just get up and do it. For crying out loud, did you really think I would ask you if I thought you couldn’t do it? Oh, and by the way, I’ll do it through you.” And then Gideon goes through this routine of: “Are you sure?” “Because if you are, just prove it.” “I want to be really, really, really sure before I step out in faith and this thing doesn’t work out.” “I want a sure thing before I try something. I’m not into risk or anything like that.” “I know the potential is awesome, but I’m not into failure, or anything new and unfamiliar.” Can you relate?
Sometimes we simply get preoccupied with life and miss the opportunities standing right before us.
Tennessee Williams tells a story of someone who forgot – the story of Jacob Brodzky, a shy Russian Jew whose father owned a bookstore. The older Brodzky wanted his son to go to college. The boy, on the other hand, desired nothing but to marry Lila, his childhood sweetheart – a French girl as effusive, vital, and ambitious as he was contemplative and retiring. A couple of months after young Brodzky went to college, his father fell ill and died. The son returned home, buried his father, and married his love. Then the couple moved into the apartment above the bookstore, and Brodzky took over its management. The life of books fit him perfectly, but it cramped her. She wanted more adventure – and she found it, she thought, when she met an agent who praised her beautiful singing voice and enticed her to tour Europe with a vaudeville company. Brodzky was devastated. At their parting, he reached into his pocket and handed her the key to the front door of the bookstore.
“You had better keep this,” he told her, “because you will want it some day. Your love is not so much less than mine that you can get away from it. You will come back sometime, and I will be waiting.” She kissed him and left. To escape the pain he felt, Brodzky withdrew deep into his bookstore and took to reading as someone else might have taken to drink. He spoke little, did little, and could most times be found at the large desk near the rear of the shop, immersed in his books while he waited for his love to return.
Nearly 15 years after they parted, at Christmastime, she did return. But when Brodzky rose from the reading desk that had been his place of escape for all that time, he did not take the love of his life for more than an ordinary customer. “Do you want a book?” he asked. That he didn’t recognize her startled her. But she gained possession of herself and replied, “I want a book, but I’ve forgotten the name of it.” Then she told him a story of childhood sweethearts. A story of a newly married couple who lived in an apartment above a bookstore. A story of a young, ambitious wife who left to seek a career, who enjoyed great success but could never relinquish the key her husband gave her when they parted. She told him the story she thought would bring him to himself.
But his face showed no recognition. Gradually she realized that he had lost touch with his heart’s desire, that he no longer knew the purpose of his waiting and grieving, that now all he remembered was the waiting and grieving itself. “You remember it; you must remember it – the story of Lila and Jacob?”
After a long, bewildered pause, he said, “There is something familiar about the story, I think I have read it somewhere. It comes to me that it is something by Tolstoy.” Dropping the key, she fled the shop. And Brodzky returned to his desk, to his reading, unaware that the love he waited for had come and gone. (Signs of the Times, June, 1993, p. 11.)
Back to Gideon. God gave him an opportunity. He finally risked and God used him mightily to force back the Midianite army. When we see an opportunity, we need to act on it. Or it may pass us by, never again to return.
II. Opportunities May be Stumbled Upon or Searched Out.
In the parable of the treasure in the field, a man simply stumbles across the opportunity of a lifetime. He wasn’t out looking for it, necessarily. He was going about his daily routine and the opportunity presented itself. The merchant, however, was actively looking for great pearls, and chose not to pass up the opportunity of a lifetime.
Brandon A. Bradley told his story in Pray! Magazine some time back about an opportunity in his life: “I am a surgical assistant—the surgeon’s right-hand man. At one point in my career, I lost my passion. I wanted a job with spiritual significance, and I prayed for that. Imagine my shock when God led me to a position in plastic surgery. Why would God want me in a hotbed of vanity? I wondered. During my quiet times, the Lord assured me that this was part of his plan, and that I should wait upon his direction. So I obeyed, continuing to pray that the Lord would use me in this job. The first thing I heard him say when I started my new position was, ‘Gather and pray in my name.’ There were only a few Christians who worked in the plastic surgery department, but I started with them. ‘I’m going to start praying for our workplace each Monday, 15 minutes before we clock in,’ I told them. ‘I’ll be in Operating Room 2, and I hope you will join me.’ We met each week, praying for our work, our colleagues, and our patients. Soon we were praying boldly for opportunities to witness. By the end of that year, God had answered many prayers, which included 10 friends who accepted Christ as their savior God has blown me away with his answers, and he has given me a purpose far beyond patient care. He expanded my circle of influence by transferring me to the main surgery department, where I now rotate through all four surgery departments in the hospital campus. I have been able to start several prayer groups throughout the hospital. Each group focuses on inviting the Holy Spirit to move in their department. They encourage each other in Christ, pray for opportunities to witness, seek God’s will, and ask that Christ be glorified in their work. I don’t know if I’ll always work in a surgery department, caring for patients who are under anesthesia most of the time I’m with them. But since I realized that I could advance the kingdom of God through praying at work, I have found renewed passion for my job, as well as for the opportunities for ministry it provides.”
There are times we search out opportunities. D.L. Moody made a covenant with God that he would witness for Christ to at least one person each day. One night, about ten o’clock, he realized that he had not yet witnessed; so he got out of bed, got dressed, and in the Chicago snow, went out in to the street and spoke to a man standing by a lamppost, asking him, “Are you a Christian?” The man flew into a violent rage and threatened to knock Moody into the gutter. Later, that same man went to an elder in the church and complained that Moody was “doing more harm in Chicago than ten men were doing good.” The elder begged Moody to temper his zeal with knowledge.
Three months later, Moody was awakened at the YMCA by a man knocking at the door. It was the man he had witnessed to. “I want to talk to you about my soul,” he said to Moody. He apologized for the way he had treated Moody and said that he had had no peace ever since that night on Lake Street when Moody witnessed to him. Moody led the man to Christ and he became a zealous worker in the Sunday school movement.
However they come, we need to make the most of every opportunity we have this year to make a difference for Jesus.
III. To Make the Most of our Opportunities, We May Need to Make Our Way Through a Lot of Muck
A major diamond mining company in South Africa specializes in mining certain coastal areas where the rough gems have been deposited below some fifty or so feet of stone, gravel, and sand. After giant earth movers remove the cover layers, the diamond-bearing conglomerate is dynamited and then excavated by hydraulic water pressure. Using large nylon brushes, workers sweep out all the crevices and hollows to be sure nothing is lost. The loosened conglomerate is then pounded, crushed, washed, and sifted to discover every possible diamond. It is estimated that some 180 million parts of earth are processed to yield one part diamond. That’s a lot of muck.
The truth is, often, to make the most of the opportunities God grants us, it will take a lot of work, perspiration, and discomfort to make it happen. But that doesn’t make the opportunity any less of an opportunity. It just means that the end result may be all the more precious and astounding and miraculous.
Thomas Edison once said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” We may need to try 100 things before finding one thing that works. But the victory is worth it. Beloved, God has called us to a battleground, not a playground. Kingdom work is not for sissies. If we’re not willing to make the sacrifices to take on audacious opportunities for the kingdom of God, we’re not worth our salt. God will simply pass us by and give the opportunity to someone else that will be up to the task. Then they will have the opportunity to shout out praises to God when He works the miracles through their service of worship. I’m not satisfied just being a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord. I want to be one of the ones leading others through the door into an awesome relationship with God! And I hope you do too.
And this brings us to our last observation from these two parables.
IV. We Must Be Willing to Give Up in Order to Gain When it Comes to Opportunities
What did each man in these parables do in order to make the most of their opportunities? They both sold all they had to capitalize on the opportunity.
What are we willing to sacrifice in order to see God accomplish awesome, audacious things in our world? And is it really a sacrifice when we give up our meager resources to realize what we could never accomplish on our own? Are we willing to give up our:
• Comfort
• Time
• Money
• Safety
Are we willing to take the risks necessary involved in stepping out in faith as God leads and directs? Remember, God will not lead where His grace and power will not provide the way.
I’m trusting God for an epic year. Let’s wait and work with our hands open. Our expectations high, and our dreams alive. There’s much to be done.
By God’s grace and by God’s power I’m trusting for miracles and audacious new beginnings!
