United Church of God

Feel the Knowledge

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Feel the Knowledge

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Feel the Knowledge

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Coming out of the Associated Press a recent article announced a $10 million dollar gold coin discovery by a couple in California. These people found treasure along a path they had been walking for years. In Matthew 13:44 we find Jesus likening the Kingdom of God to a treasure found in a field. What did the man who discovered the treasure understand and how did he feel about it? With that in mind, how did he go about obtaining the treasure?

Transcript

There was an article that came out just this week. It was published by the Associated Press out of Los Angeles, and I'm going to read to you a good portion of it, and then we'll go from there.
Their title is, for the article, “California Couple Finds $10 Million (I added that little bit), $10 Million in Rare Coins While Out Walking Dog.”
A Northern California couple out walking their dog on their gold country property stumbled across a modern-day bonanza, $10 million in rare mint condition gold coins buried in the shadow of an old tree. “Nearly all of the 1427 coins dating from 1847 to 1894 are in uncirculated, mint condition,” said David Hall cofounder of Professional Coin Grading Service of Santa Ana, which recently authenticated them.
This happens to be an old hobby of mine. I don’t get to do it really anymore but… just awesome.
Although the face value of the gold pieces only adds up to about $27,000, some of them are so rare that coin experts say they could fetch nearly $1 million apiece.

"I don't like to say once in a lifetime for anything, but you don't get an opportunity to handle this kind of material, a treasure like this, EVER," said veteran numismatist, Don Kagan, who is representing the finders. "It's like they found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

"The pair are choosing to remain anonymous," Kagan said, "in part to avoid a renewed gold rush to their property by modern-day prospectors armed with metal detectors."

"They also don't want to be treated any differently," said David McCarthy chief numismatist for Kagan, Inc., of Tiburon. Kagan and McCarthy would say little about the couple's property or its ownership history other than it's in a sprawling hilly area of gold country, and the coins were found along the path the couple had walked for years. On the day they found them last Spring the woman had been over to examine an old rusty can that erosion had caused to pop slightly out of the ground.

"Don't be above bending over to check on a rusty can," he said she told him.

And then it goes on to finish the article.

Now that I've read this article to you, I would like to ask you to stop and think for a moment. How would you feel if YOU found hidden treasure that amounted to what feels like inordinate wealth? What if you had been the person or the couple who had found all these old coins? How would that make you FEEL. Now I'm not saying how you feel right now, like, "Those lucky dogs!" How would you feel if YOU found it?

Would you feel relieved? I've had times in my past where if I had found this and would've felt relieved because I had debts, and that would've relieved my fears, right? Okay. Or, thankful, thankful that, you know, things are fine, but this covers my future, right? I could say, "Okay, I'm prepared for retirement now." Okay? And, most certainly, wouldn't you feel overjoyed. No matter what, I mean, just all you've got to do is imagine any, whatever your favorite little thing is, finding it in a secret place, in this case lots of money.

Well, why don't you go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 13, you probably know where I'm going, Matthew chapter 13 in verse 44... Again, this is Jesus Christ talking to the disciples in private after he's been in public giving parables and is giving another parable.

"Again the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which a man found and hid and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has... all that he has... ALL! and buys that field."

You could say the treasurer was knowledge to these people who found the gold, our knowledge, in this case, the kingdom of heaven, it was knowledge of the kingdom of heaven, it was knowledge of the gold. But the value of the treasure was found in the Scripture in the man's joy. You knew it was valuable. He was joyful over it, and he was willing to obtain that land that held the treasure; what he was willing to do.

So, I want to bring out two points here, quickly.

First point - Knowledge is a must. It's a must, knowledge, but it is nothing without feeling.

I titled this, "Feel the Knowledge."

Knowledge is a must, but it is nothing without feeling.

The man could've found the treasure and not understood or appreciated its value. He could've counted it, weighed it, inspected it for purity. He could have done any number of things to be able to conclude it was treasure. But without a motivation toward its value he might not cover it... remember in the Scripture, he covers it, hides it, so no one else will find it, or guard it, or be willing to sell ALL that he had to obtain it.

Second point - Feeling is a must, but it is nothing without the knowledge. See, on the other hand, a man might desire treasure and imagine all the wonderful things he could do to accomplish with it; pay off debt, build a bigger house, feed the poor, and give to the church. He can dream about how happy he would be with the treasure. He could even pretend he had the treasure sometimes and play out a fantasy for its use in his mind's eye. This, you know, I did as a kid, (under breath: I still do it sometimes).

But, in the end, if we could not find the treasure, if he could not find the treasure, no matter how much he pretended, his hope and his joy in it would be empty. There would be no substance to the joy he was experiencing.

This couple in California already own the land, so they made no sacrifice, intended sacrifice, in order to obtain the treasure. They own the land. But they were able to easily identify it. Still, they had to appreciate its value. They had to collect it. And it appears they're going to do things with it. You also notice they are hiding it. They're not telling people where it's at. They don't want to be trespassed and harassed and find all these lost cousins, and so forth. So, they're hiding it.

The key point here, though, in Matthew, is that Jesus likened this very scenario to the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven was likened not just unto treasure, but a treasure a man had to guard while he went and sold everything he had to afford the land, which it was hidden on. This man saw that the value of the treasure was, one, worth more than the land, and, two, unattainable unless he owned the land. In this parable the situation is such that to obtain the land that holds the treasure, the man had to literally sell all that he had just to pay for the land. The land was not the treasure, but he knew he would have to give up everything just to acquire the land.

What are we willing to sell to obtain the firm ground which hides the kingdom of heaven? What is the ground we need to buy?

Turn to Luke number nine, Luke chapter 9... And we'll read in verse 23 and 24... and this is Jesus speaking. "Then he said to them all, 'If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.'"

In short, he's saying you need to give up all that you are for me, for Jesus.

Romans Chapter 6... Romans Chapter 6, and verse three... And Paul is writing... "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

Jesus' life on earth was a perfect life in an imperfect world, and he handed over that life to redeem our lives. Nevertheless, we must recognize the limitless value of God's kingdom, and the price we must pay to obtain the land that hides that treasure.

Though we have no eternal life of our own, the life we have is full value to us, right? It’s all we've got; however imperfect, however determinate; it ends. That's all we have. And so, we've got to give the full value of THAT, the full value of our own being, and Christ requires we give our lives for his if we are at to obtain that treasure.

And just a final comment... His grace is sufficient to provide us limitless eternal wealth though our original value is wasted in sin.

Okay, remember the kingdom of God is the treasure. What is the kingdom of God? You know, it's who's in it. It's what they do. It's how they are. It's everything. You could say, it's Jesus Christ and God the Father, everything they are and do. Not just territory. It's everything, and we can't afford it. It's not the land that's the treasure and we don't have the money for it, okay. What we are offered is that we can take on that land, as it were, that holds the treasure. We give ourselves, all of who we are, and we obtain that land, and then we walk in God's way, we walk like Jesus Christ, and then we can obtain that kingdom. So we give up all we have, all that we naturally are, our whole life. Only then can we obtain the treasure that is the Kingdom of Heaven.