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Highland Presbyterian
HIGHLAND Click the
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Voice Click here to hear the Special Music No Mp3 Player? Click here SERMON 6-08-08. "I WOULD GIVE ANYTHING." Matt. 13:44-46. My friends, it seems that today we find ourselves living in a society
dominated by the desire to acquire possessions, the technical term for such a
lifestyle is materialism. A house, a car or two, nice clothes, plenty of
available funds to buy everything and anything that we want; after all we cannot
have our neighbors having more than we do. Can we? That being said however, leads me to ask this very important question: how much is it worth to us to have the Spirit of the living God within our hearts?If we could know today that we could possess within us his own kingdom, what
would we be willing to give? My friends, many people today find themselves wanting the
same as that tramp. They are willing to give a thousand dollars worth of effort
in order to attain a million dollars worth of results. That is why so people are so easily taken in by so many scams today. "Just send me a hundred dollars today and untold riches can be yours," And oh so many people believe it and expectantly send in their hard earned money in the hopes of getting those promised riches in return. Why are so many people willing and eager to believe, that despite all that this life has taught us, there is the opportunity to get something for nothing? There seems to be this belief that for a small investment there will be a great return? Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is like a treasure buried in a field. My friends, we can all picture the scene. We are now into the hot summer weather here in Florida and working outside in the heat is not easy for those working on roads, or building new houses. Just this week I finally got around to doing a job outside the house on a hot humid afternoon. It only took me a couple of hours including many breaks and I was sweating and exhausted when the task was completed. This man has been out there all day in the heat. He is sweating, he is tired. How he wishes that there was an easier way to earn a living, to provide for his family. Suddenly his plow strikes something hard, probably another one of those big rocks, hidden just beneath the surface. But it is not a rock, it is a large wooden box! What could it be? He digs furiously to remove the dirt from around the box, and finally he is able to lift the box far enough out of the ground to be able to remove the lid. The box contains a treasure. More wealth than he has ever seen before. When he finally gains control of himself he quickly looks around to see if
anyone is watching, all is clear, there is no one nearby, no one could possibly
have seen his find, and so he quickly lowers the box back down into the hole,
and covers it again with dirt. After all the land on which he has found this
treasure is not his. How can he make sure that no one can stake a claim to this treasure? It does not take him long to decide, he will sell everything he has, even the
shirt on his back if necessary to raise the capital needed to buy that field. The kingdom of God is like that; says Jesus. It is like a pearl of great price. The picture is so vivid. The Kingdom of God is like that, says Jesus. And deep in our hearts we know that it is true. My friends, how much are we prepared to give to have utter and complete peace of mind? Suppose that all of our worry and stress could just melt away? How much would it be worth to us? There is the story of the stuntman who had a tightrope pulled across the
Niagara Falls and then announced that he was going to walk to walk across both
ways. A large crowd gathered for the event and as promised the man walked across
the rope and made it safely to the other side of the Falls. She demonstrated trust. My friends, do we have that kind of faith and trust in our heavenly father? Would not that be worth everything? How much is such peace worth? His peace and his power. How much are we prepared to give for them, because only everything is enough? The problem is that far too few of us are prepared to pay the price, and that I believe is the reason that for so many today their lives are so empty and so destitute. We refuse to give everything and so we miss out on his peace, his power, his purposes. My friends, we were created by a living God for a divine purpose, we are not simply worms in the dust. We are God's own people. The great Swiss psychiatrist, Paul Tournier wrote: "In my childhood I had already come to know God, quite naively of course, nevertheless I thank God for those who led me to him. Yet it took me a revolutionary experience in order for this knowledge to go beyond the abstract nature of a few ideas about God, however right these ideas might have been. I had to meet him in the full activity of adulthood, through dialogue with inspired people. They put my real life, my home and my medical work, under the light of God. Ever since, Jesus Christ has been my constant unseen companion of every day, The witness of all my successes and all my failures. The confidant of my rejoicings And my times of sadness. It is in this life shared with him that the knowledge of God Is continually strengthened and sharpened. All that I can hope when my time of action will be over is that I might go further in the riches of his knowledge." My friends, there truly is a man who has discovered a pearl of great price; there is a man who has found treasure buried in a field. My friends, remember these words of Tournier, "Jesus Christ has become my constant unseen companion of every day." There it is his peace, his power, his purpose. Just what is it worth to us? The wise among us will answer ....... EVERYTHING!
AND TO GOD BE THE GLORY. AMEN.
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