"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. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."
Matthew 13:44-46
Often times, we interpret this parable as us looking for the treasure, finding it, and giving everything we have for this treasure. However, Pastor Tony gave us a different perspective of this parable. The field is the people of the world and God is the man who finds the treasure. God went into the world and found treasure. He found us. We are the treasure. You are the treasure. God saw tremendous value in you and he gave His Son, Jesus, in order to gain you. The difference between the parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl is that the treasure is us while the pearl is you. Pastor Tony said that Jesus would have still died for me if I was the only one who needed Him. And this is the love of our Father. It's so extravagant! It's a love that gives up everything. We have tremendous value in God's eyes and how God sees us is reality. His opinion is reality and if he deems us of worth, then we have worth.
Discipleship is following Jesus. He is absolutely worthy to follow. God will not hold back good things from us.
"Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." - John 10:1-5
How are you going to follow God? You have to hear his voice. You build relationships through conversations. True relationship happens in dialogue. If you know the whole Bible and all the laws, but you don't have a relationship with God, you have almost nothing. Love is about a relationship and we must cultivate this relationship. You cannot force a relationship with God but as you plant a tree, water it, give it sunlight, and wait for it to grow, we can read our Bible, spend time with God everyday, and wait for Him. The relationship will work from ground up. You can't plan the way a tree is going to grow. In the same way, our relationship with God will take its course. Metaphorically, we must expose ourselves to light and water. Each and every one of us are different and we have unique ways to communicate with God. Some people hear God through art, nature, and music. While these are subjective ways to hear God, we need something objective - the Bible. We must know the word of God by reading all of scripture, not just the parts of scripture that we like. And in order to cultivate our relationship with God, there are things we need to cut out in order to hear the word of God (this is probably different for each of us).
Let's cultivate our relationship with God and cultivate attentiveness to God throughout our lives!
...to be continued
Great post!
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