The Kingdom of God

There's a book that I read a little over a year ago that many of you are familiar with.

You're at least familiar with the title because you probably haven't read the book, but I would chance that a number of you have seen the movie.

The book that I read over a year ago was called The Count of Monte Cristo.

How many of you have read The Count of Monte Cristo?

Ah!

Three.

Did I see one over here?

Four.

Four or five of us have read The Count of Monte Cristo.

How many of you have seen the movie or a movie version?

Okay.

More of us have seen one of the two or three versions of the movie that have been made of The Count of Monte Cristo.

A hint.

Those of you that have seen the recent one with Jim Caviezel, the guy who played Jesus in The Passion, that was the most recent made four, five, six years ago.

Good color swashbuckling didn't stay true to the book.

The ending of that in the movie was too good.

It was too happy, too upbeat.

The book doesn't end that way.

And other things they took license with.

The one made back in the 70s with Richard Chamberlain was a little bit closer to the storyline of the book.

The book is 1,500 pages, approximately.

That's why most of us don't read books like that.

And I said, boy, but I wanted to read it.

And I got into it.

And once I got into it, I just couldn't put it down.

The story of the Count of Monte Cristo, which many of us know is the story of a man named Edmund Dantes.

It is set in Napoleonic France, early 1800s.

And Edmund Dantes is a ship captain who is falsely accused, long story short, and he is put into a prison by three of his supposed friends just as he has returned to port and is about to marry his childhood sweetheart.

He is falsely accused of being a Bonapartist.

And he is put into the Chateau D'if.

And there he languishes for 13 years.

And he grows his hair and his fingernails and his beard.

And he is falsely accused and shunted off.

His girlfriend marries one of his accusers, and their lives go on.

And the innocent Edmund Dantes languishes in the Chateau D'if.

While there, after a number of years, he meets through a number of circumstances.

A fellow prisoner, as they basically, one of them tunnels into his room, a man by the name of the Abbie Ferrer, as he is called.

And the Abbie, an abbot or an abbey, as he is called in the book, he is also there because of trumped-up charges.

And he has been trying to tunnel out.

And at the time they meet in prison, in their cells, the abbey is about to die.

And he imparts to Edmund Dantes the knowledge of a cache of hidden treasure.

And he gives him the directions as to where to find it, if he can get out.

And how Edmund Dantes eventually gets out of the Chateau D'if is part of the story.

And he does get out.

And he travels to the island.

And through a series of circumstances, he finds the motherlode, a great treasure.

And what he does, then, he buys the island.

He takes on a name of the Count of Monte Cristo, which is the name of the island.

He's the Count, the ruler of this uninhabited island.

And he buys the title.

And he sets off now with his wealth and his riches, over a period of years, to avenge himself of the three men, his former friends, who put him in prison.

And he sets up an elaborate scheme and method of doing it.

And that's the remainder of the story.

And he accomplishes his goals.

He gets his revenge.

And really, the Count of Monte Cristo is a fascinating story, well told, especially in the Hollywood versions as they roll out.

But the reason it has transcended the years is because it was written in 1844.

Most books written in 1844 aren't around anymore, certainly being read by people.

But you can read that book and you can stay with it.

And of course, Hollywood's made movies out of it, several of them, because it's a fascinating story.

And the themes of the story are really what is universal, because it deals with the themes of hope.

Edmond Dante never loses hope that he might get out.

And it's that hope that eventually causes him to get out of his prison.

It's a theme of justice, because he seeks justice, and the only way he can find it is through his own means.

It's about vengeance.

He does take vengeance upon his former friends.

It's about mercy, because, as the story is told, he does impart mercy to certain people who themselves have been wronged in the whole process of this elaborate story.

It's about forgiveness, and it's about death.

I will tell you, in the end, he doesn't get his former girlfriend back in the book.

Now, in the most recent movie, he does.

But that's the feel-good Hollywood ending that they have to put in to sell tickets.

He doesn't get her, and he goes off to whatever, as the book ends, and he doesn't get that one thing that he wants.

And so it's about vengeance and justice and mercy and forgiveness and death and hope.

It's about mental themes, and it's really a theme that is built upon some of the aspects of the Bible, Monte Cristo's, the mountain of Christ.

And so there's a Christ theme that runs through the story of Edmond Dante as he assumes this persona of the Count and goes about setting people free, bringing people to justice.

But the key to the whole story is where I want to focus on.

The whole key to the adventure, the Count, is the vast treasure that he has bequeathed by his meeting of the abbey-ferer in the Chateau d'If, and getting out, finding this untold wealth that makes him rich beyond any imagination, and by which he can assume an identity and a new life, and finance over a period of years his plan to bring to justice or to seek the vengeance upon those who wrecked his life. But because he has the money and the treasure, he can do that. That's a fascinating story, and knowing the story inspires dreams of finding treasure. When you read that and you begin to think about it, we would all love to find that hidden treasure. Someplace, somewhere, hidden in the hills of the west, or in the sands of a beach, or a lost gold mine, or some hidden treasure. And of course, the stories of the hidden treasure are numerous. Go home and Google lost hidden treasures, or buried hidden treasures, and you'll pull up all of the stories of all of the various lost treasures that people spend years and lifetimes seeking. The Lost Dutchman Mine, all kinds of various treasures that are out there. People, many people at least, were fascinated by the idea, and many people actually put their lives to finding that pot of gold. That treasure that's going to make them rich, that they'll stumble upon or find. It's part of human nature. It's why people buy lottery tickets. Think about it. They want to strike it rich on that big jackpot. Striking and finding that treasure, finding this pot of gold, is why people are even duped by the Bernard Madoff's of life. Offering returns that are just too good to be true, and indeed are too good to be true, as unfortunately in that case, so many found out. But finding that hidden treasure, finding that pot of gold, striking the lottery, isn't likely to happen to most people. The chances are you can run the numbers and know that it's a long shot, but that doesn't keep people from going after them. Most of us are not going to find the pot of gold or the treasure that's buried in a cave. But we have found a treasure. We do have a treasure in front of us that's far beyond that of the counts.

If we think about it, understand it, and appreciate it, we have in our possession a treasure so vast that it really could not be exhausted. It could not be spent. It could not be understood in seven lifetimes or ten lifetimes, whatever number you want to put onto it. We have that kind of a treasure in front of us and with us. Turn a few over to Proverbs 2. Proverbs the second chapter. I want to read to you a few verses that actually formed the theme for our camp you can do, our local camp here for the preteens this past week. This was the theme chosen and what we based our Bible classes and even many of our activities on.

What I'm going to read to you at this time from the book of Proverbs, chapter 2, let's begin in verse 1. It says, My son, if you receive My words and treasure My commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding yes if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding you get the impression of energy effort that has to be put into what he is talking about here receiving this treasure you don't get it by chance you don't find it by sitting on the couch you don't find it by just wishing you don't find it by reading about it effort has to be put into it you have to cry out of for discernment and apply your heart which is a very complicated thing to do in one sense complicated to at least turn ourselves around to get to the point where we would apply our heart once we do it it's it's not rocket science but for human beings men and women it's a little difficult to really get into what it means to apply our heart to understanding you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding if you see her as silver verse four this is where we begin verses four and five was our theme for the camp this year if you seek her as silver in other words as that lost Dutchman silver mine out in Nevada or wherever that may be or other some other story of a lost gold mine that was covered up work a hoard of gold or silver that was lost forgotten or something that went to the bottom of the sea in a Spanish galleon on the way back to France from the new world people search for silver and for gold and they spend a lot of money for that and search for her as hidden treasures then verse five says you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God so verses four and five were our theme this year if you seek her as silver search for her as hidden treasures then you will understand the fear of the Lord we actually even had a treasure chest back here this week I guess I should have had it left behind for illustration for you today I didn't think think it through to have that done but we could have done that but we had gold goblets and gold coins it was all fake but we had those there to illustrate to the kids a big treasure chest and this is of course what people dream for this is what Edmund Dante's felt this is what we would all like to find I mean I I will admit to you I've had my count of Monte Cristo dream I still have I still have it and I pray about it every once in a while I will tell you that and it's not not necessarily not just for my benefit but that that's another story for another time but we all would like to find that that treasure and as I said this is not likely that we're going to do that but here in Proverbs the section where we've read over many times and we're familiar with but really does tell us some things that we should understand the effort the work the hidden treasure that is there that we have to define you know hidden treasure something that's very often put away for safekeeping and then as the legends go or the stories go it people die they never come back to get that and it's forgotten and it passes into legends and stories and people then try to find a map where they try to find it usually the story is that someone put it there and they didn't make it they didn't make it back to get to it we've all heard the story that the Dead Sea Scrolls that were found in the late 1940s in the desert Judean desert south of Jerusalem these ragged scrolls of the Old Testament that were found have been studied by scholars since they were found in the late 40s the shed light on certain many aspects of the Bible particularly Old Testament I always wondered why were they they were found in a cave by a little Bedouin boy by accident they were in clay jars I've always wondered over the years as I read about them how do you wind up in a cave stuck up above the actual community where the scribes and people who wrote them where they live and you can go there as part of the tourist attractions in Israel you go to Qumran and you go and they'll show you the cave you can see actually the cave released from a distance where they the Bedouin boy found the Dead Sea Scrolls and it was not until the last time we were there a couple years ago that the tour guide told the story and it clicked together in my mind as to why they were in a cave and what happened to that community these the Essenes this ascetic group of Jews who were down there living in the desert in the first century in the years following the death of Jesus and he told the story and it made sense he said look how'd they get up there he said it's very simple the Roman 10th Legion had just sacked Jerusalem and the remaining Jewish zealots were down south of where the Qumran religious people were and the Romans were going down to wipe out the remainder of the Jewish zealots on Masada you've heard of Masada well to get from Jerusalem to Masada they have to go by way of Qumran down by the Dead Sea and here comes the Roman 10th Legion you know marching along magnified hundred times beyond that and these Essenes see them coming and they've got their precious treasure are these scrolls of the Bible what do they do well they hike up into the hills bury them in the caves or put them in the caves and go on down and stand in front of the Roman legions thinking that the Romans are just going to pass on by well the Romans are kind of ticked off with anything Jewish at that point and they kill them all they wipe out the Essene community they're just after all they're just inconvenient Jews to the Romans and the community disappears the knowledge of the treasure buried in the jars disappears for nearly two centuries until the Bedouin boy finds him by accident and it becomes a hidden treasure that is found for scholars probably doesn't make much difference in your life in mind we haven't read them I've seen the fragments of the Israel Museum but I haven't read them nor have you and who cares about the Dead Sea Scrolls right but for the Essenes it was their treasure it was their treasure and they hid it and it was hidden for nearly two thousand years which is an interesting and important thing to remember about treasures as I'll come back to it treasures are your treasures they're my treasures and many of them are beyond money they're only valuable to us they may not be a treasure to someone else some old scrolls of the Bible they meant nothing to the Romans at the time but they did to the to the Jewish Essenes what you and I treasure may be someone else's piece of piece of junk but as I said you can Google all the stories and you can find the dozens of stories that are there about lost treasure we all know the story of the Holy Grail the Ark of the Covenant we've seen that dramatized in the movies that's another example of of a lost treasure that people would like to find or they spend years and centuries even trying to find the whole Robert Louis Stevenson book Treasure Island is about a treasure on an island for those of us that have read that you remember when they found the Titanic 20 or more years ago I remember being so excited when they finally found the location of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean I remember thinking boy great I couldn't wait I made sure I saw the first pictures that came back of that because I'd read about the Titanic and read the book about it years before knew the story and they found it and then they showed the pictures of it and it was fascinating there was no money it was just the relic it was a mystery solved but it was a treasure for some and they made a big movie out of it but it was it was something that captured people's imagination for such a long long time I mentioned other things that people do you ever watch somebody with a metal detector I hope none of you have well I mean I don't hope that you I don't hope that you don't have how do they say that you have a metal detector that's just fine but have you ever watched somebody with a metal detector you know they got their headphones on they're going down the beach they're out in the park and they're looking for metal now the metal they're looking for is money they want to find the quarter maybe old coins and whatever and they'll stop no they'll find it it's fascinating to watch it's never been an interest of mine that's why I started off the way I did but if that's your interest that's fine metal detectors but behind it is a search it's a search for a treasure you ever got stuck behind someone at the convenience store who's buying lottery tickets I don't go into a lot of convenience stores but when I do it's usually for a pack of gum bottle of water I want to get in get out real quick a lot of things happen at convenience stores you don't want to hang around convenience stores what really irritates me is when I get caught behind somebody who's buying lottery tickets they got their flip-flops on the cut-off shorts their tank top cigarette hanging out of their mouth you got the package of fresh smokes that they just bought the 24 ounce Pepsi and a bag of chips yeah you've been there too haven't you and they're buying $20 worth of lottery tickets and all I want is my bottle of Dasani water and I want to get back on the road but I gotta wait for them to go through that really irritates me it's just one of those things and you know that they're not going to win the chances of them winning but they're spending more money on the lottery tickets then and the other trips they make in then they've got clothes on their back and you could go into the studies of you know it's usually the poor people that buy the majority of the lottery tickets and people want to strike it rich and that there's nothing wrong with the dream there's nothing wrong with the desire but when you look at the scriptures and what we are told in the Bible there's more to it than just hitting upon it by chance or by luck as I read as we read here in Proverbs there's effort you have to cry out you have to search for something like you would for the silver to get the true treasures turn if you will over to Matthew chapter 13 this is a scripture that I use with the kids as Debbie and I taught our Bible class with them to illustrate the theme we went to Matthew chapter 13 and verse 44 and we read and talked about this all of this other the stories and the search for various treasures that are legendary and maybe some of them are real and they may be out there just haven't been found yet they're fascinating and they can take a lot of time they can take a lot of money they'll probably continue on people will be searching for them as long as there's life on earth and if they're all found there'll be other ones made up or are created by whatever circumstance to be searched for and people will want to find them because we want to find something secret we want to find something big we want to find the hidden treasure again not realizing because of many other factors the biggest treasure is right here and it's of a completely different nature in Matthew chapter 13 and verse 44 Christ is going through a number of parables in this section that deal with the subject of the kingdom of God the kingdom of heaven in verse 44 he says again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field so here we come back to treasure the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field so it's it's valuable but it's been hidden many different reasons spiritual we could go into even backing up to the sower in the sea as to why the treasure of the kingdom of God indeed is hidden by God's purpose and plan it is not this time by which he is calling all to salvation and he has purposely shielded and blinded the eyes of the world from the deep truths of his word of the kingdom and in this case he illustrates it by a treasure that's hidden in a field which a man found and hid so it was hidden but it was found almost by accident you would have to think it as it is told here in this one verse one verse it's it's found by accident like a bedouin boy who's searching for his lost goat and he stumbles across the Dead Sea Scrolls or other means by which great treasures have been found by accident and here it is it's hidden is found and then the one who finds it hides it again hides it again because he wants to have it for himself or he wants to make sure that it is preserved you could read a number of different angles into why the finder would hide it but what he does then it says he goes and for joy over it he goes out sells all that he has and buys that field the way the law was at this time of property you bought you buy a field you have all rights to that field whatever you find in it technically it would be the same today you buy a plot of land and in most locales you own not only what's on the land but you own what's below the land you find oil on it it's yours if somebody strikes a rich with a gold it's yours except in Kentucky and West Virginia where the land is sold but the rights to the land what's under the land in that case coal or natural gas belongs to somebody else in most cases today that's another story but in this case you he finds it hides it goes then with joy and he sells all that he has to buy that one field sells all that he has remember that phrase we're going to come back to that the kingdom of God here is like a treasure that is hidden found and then put back until it can be possessed completely by the one who finds it verse 45 is another similar one with a little different twist it says again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls this case a merchant is actually looking for good pearls goodbyes as a merchant to resale but he's actively seeking pearls one thing for his business who when he had found the pearl of great price which symbolizes the kingdom not necessarily didn't think he was going to find find it this big he found the pearl of great price went sold all that he had all of his other stock and bought it he had to have that one pearl because that meant the most that would provide for everything that was in this spiritual application this is talking about the kingdom of God and so here in these two parables as we were talking with the kids this week we were explaining to them treasure the kingdom of God is like a treasure something very valuable is hidden is found you have to sell everything that you have to possess it and that's kind of difficult to get across to a five-year-old mind in some ways it's difficult to get across to a 50 year old mind in some ways as well so how do you do that how do we think about that well we asked the kids some questions to try to make it down bring it down to their level things they could understand I I asked the kids what's the most valuable thing that you own what's your treasure well little one of them had a stuffed animal that was given to them by their dad another little kid mentioned it's a blanket special blanket like every kid has a special blanket that one time or the other one one kid mentioned my family was his treasure my family that was his treasure so we went around and you know another was a pet and we all have treasures when we were kids and maybe we still have certain things that we treasure you know I I showed the kids my my current treasure is right here I keep it in my pocket this is my treasure it's my iPhone okay I this this goes with me everywhere now I don't go too many places without this it's on my bedside at night to wake me up I get up in the morning I hate to admit it I check my email I'm addicted I understand but it's got all my contacts it's got pictures has Jacob and Brad on it even as we as I speak as I snap their photos it has you know it helps me do a lot of things it's it's my grown-up toy it's if you will something that I treasure and have with me all the time you'll you have something as well you have yours it's interesting about treasures I showed the kids another treasure let me and I'm going to share it with you here because I didn't realize until I started to think about this for the kids campus this week that I really had all my life I've kind of been fascinated by this concept I didn't really realize it didn't consciously planted off of this verse but maybe you're like this too because just as those kids had treasures right now and treasures will change as we grow older we all recognize that I realized when I was putting this together that I've kept some of my treasures and I showed the kids my treasure box this is literally this is my treasure box does it look like a treasure box to you I keep it in the bottom drawer of my desk and I it's something that I had when I was a kid what it is it's a cigar box for those who are up close Canadian Club cigars and to prove that it's as old as I am when you open the lid five cents for the cigar okay you can't buy a cigar for five cents today not that I'm too much aware of the price of cigars but this was an empty cigar box and no I did not smoke all the cigars that were in this box to get it this came out of my dad's gas station and he sold cigars there and it was always a treat whenever there was an empty cigar box off the counter to pick it up and I saved them and actually found this when I was cleaning out after my mom died a few years ago and I was cleaning out some of the things I found this it was mine my name was on it Len McNeely which is my middle name is Len and so this again proves in my scrawl when I was a kid that it goes back that long and I even wrote down here money box okay didn't have a whole lot of money in there but that's where I put my money I found it and I found at the time I was going through some of the house with my mom's house a number of other things from my youth and I put them in here and I brought it home with me and and call me sentimental call me foolish call whatever you want but this this is my treasure box I've got all kinds of treasures in here and I keep adding to it because treasures don't end uh you know in your life but I shared with some of the kids and if you like for a minute I'll share with you some of my treasures that that are in my my box here I've got a couple of couple of knives this is a pocket knife it's a cub scout pocket knife now it's a bit rusty still opens up I could clean it up but it's got the cub scout emblem right there and I remember when I bought this I can tell you where I bought it and I can tell you that I had to have it because it completed my persona as a cub scout I had to have this knife and my mom took me down to the store downtown Cape Girardeau Missouri bought it and it was shiny then and I had to have it but you know what somewhere along the line I stopped using it and it got stuck away in a drawer and it just kind of rusted it's pretty dull but it could be a serviceable knife and I found that in some of the drawers at my mom's house and I said oh yeah I remember that so I put it in my treasure box I have another pocket knife in here now this is a more unusual pocket knife this is a tough nut pocket knife a tough nut is an old brand of blue jeans that are no longer made but in my day tough nut jeans were what you bought I don't even know if they had Levi's well they did have Levi's but they weren't as in my hometown they weren't as big but the thing about it you bought one pair of tough nut jeans every year before you went to school and they'd run this promotion at the local store buy a pair of tough nut jeans in late August early September before you go back to school and they gave you a pocket knife wow I had to have that pocket knife so mom we've got to get down there before they run out of the tough nut pocket knives and I found this and I thought oh man I hadn't seen those in years and this had a special memory to it because when we were kids we used to take these knives open them up about like this and play a game called mumbly peg how many of you remember mumbly peg I'm gonna tell you's where you kind of tossed a knife and the way it lands you score well being my buddies we were sitting around the backyard stupidly throwing a knife up in the air and hoping that it comes down away from us and one day I tossed a knife up in the air it may have been this one I don't know but it was one like it I know I remember very well it came down and stuck in my knee and I looked at that and pulled it out kept playing mumbly peg I still have that scarred on my knee today from the tough nut knife that fell into my my knee one day my wife doesn't know about that she's fine she didn't even know about this treasure box she was telling me I didn't know that she said what other things do I not know about you so I said yeah I told you about this box but I just didn't share everything uh got an old watch in here it's an old gold watch uh nothing special about this watch which is interesting about treasures you know this was a it's not a Rolex I'll tell you that and it's not real gold but it was the watch Debbie gave me when we got married it was my wedding gift from her it stopped working like a lot of watches do over a period of time but I never could throw this one away so I put it in my treasure box and there's another piece of valuable thing in here if I can find it here real quick oh here it is now this is real gold I'll just hold it up looks real small this is a two and a half dollar gold piece Indian head it was minted back in the 1920s I had to put my glasses on to look real close to get the exact date but it's there I remember this being in my dad picked this up for work he did somebody paid him at the gas station in a two and a half dollar gold piece and he put this in way in his pocket and kept it didn't didn't take this into the bank now it's worth more than two and a half dollars today I don't know what a dealer would coin dealer would value it at the gold in it is you know maybe worth more than the actual value of the cold as a collector's piece because of the price of gold but it's certainly worth more than two and a half dollars I picked that up my brother and sister didn't want it so they gave it to me as we were dividing up some things and this is real gold I've also got a silver dollar in here that was around my family when I was a kid this is a Morgan silver dollar 1921 I believe yeah 1921 and I remember it being as a kid it had a hole in it I never knew how that hole got through it so I used to wear it as it's on a chain around my neck and I'll wear it today it's just one of those things I don't do but it it has a certain value to it I got all kinds of things in here probably one of the silliest things as a old pen pencil to ever sharp pencil it says McNeely's Texaco service Cape Girardeau Missouri and on it up here has my dad's name Lloyd McNeely when I was a kid around my dad's gas station we had these by the box full everybody used them we gave them out to customers and I used to always have one in my pocket to write down orders and things like that and as the business closed my dad died whatever happened to him all disappeared but when we were cleaning out the house I happened to find it and brought back memories you know it's worth nothing except to me that's what treasures are treasures are some of them are worth money like my gold piece and some aren't worth much at all except for what we we place on them but they're they're important to us I've got other things in here I won't take the time to go through all of them and show them to you necessarily if you want to come up later I'll bore you to death with stories behind my my treasures there's things valuable there and there's there are things that are not so valuable that's the way treasure is we have to place the value that we want on it but the most important thing is that we keep it we cherish it you know if you just put it away in a box and you close the lid on it and you put it in a safe place maybe a real safe or you lock it in your drawer bottom of your dresser in your bedroom whatever wherever your safe place is you know where it is and every once in a while you may go to that box for whatever reason think maybe even in some treasure boxes to pull out some actual money to pay an unexpected bill or to sell something or whatever it might be but it represents people experiences and yes even items that are of real value to you god's kingdom is the most valuable thing that we could find it's worth whatever we might have to pay not that the sum total of all of our wealth represented in this room here this afternoon would be enough to quote buy the kingdom of god couldn't be done it isn't but in our minds under our hearts it must be of the highest value the most important treasure that we have god wants to know if we are willing to sell all we have which in the end isn't very much but he wants to know if we're willing to sell all that we have for what he knows what god and christ know is the most valuable treasure of all the kingdom of god god promises a treasure but as we've seen in these verses we have to search for it we've seen the treasure is often hidden and certainly this one is if something's hidden it means not everyone knows about it it means that not everyone can find it it also means when you put all the scriptures together that it's more than just chance to finding it as well it's not a roll of the dice or a scratch off on the ticket there has to be some hard work there have there has to be a willingness to give up something something even valuable to us to possess that treasure and when we acquire it we consider it very very valuable we must understand its value have you ever been at a garage sale and watched people who come and go at a garage sale yeah i've always said garage sales you know what we put out is our junk but it's a treasure or a value to some other people it's always amazed me what happens when people come to buy my junk it also evades me what i buy when i go and buy their junk when i've had when i've done that as well but one of the things i learned early on we used to have big church garage sales years ago down in tennessee we get everybody in the church to donate items to a garage sale we'd get permission to set up in front of the kmart parking lot on sunday morning and we'd be there very early everybody pulled in where they've been you know all the members would pull in with their trucks and vans and who've been storing it for us we get there around 6 6 30 because we wanted to get set up and you know we would advertise it would be open about eight o'clock on a sunday morning well what would happen is we'd be putting stuff out on the tables and 7 15 7 30 comes around and cars start rolling in and guys women start jumping out going through the they were the early birds and they'd start going through they'd say what you got then they start picking up stuff and of course we were just anxious to you know start moving because we didn't want to take that home at four o'clock in the afternoon and what we learned is what they bought they were looking at glassware they were looking at dishes they were looking at pieces that we thought were junk but if they found what they want they were the pros they were buying for pennies on the dollar from us and then taking it to their own garage sales or where they were permanently set up for a garage sale and selling it for multiple times more than what we were asking for because they were quote the professional people they knew what they were looking for they were looking for collector's items they knew what would sell us it was just a piece of porcelain something given at a wedding that we was collecting dust we didn't know the value of it but they did and that's what you learned you learn to either hold that back or put the right price on it or to you know you you go through that enough times but i picked that up after a couple of episodes and i realized that they were getting a bargain we thought we were getting a bargain too because we were unloading something and it was you know for the for the church effort but that that's that's how they they worked they we didn't know the true value and they they did and what's interesting to realize is that whoever owned that piece originally one of our members or wherever it was collected it was represented someone who at one time had valued it but had lost interest in it and they no longer valued that piece of glass that item and they just gave it donated it to the church treasure is treasure is treasure our treasure becomes something very valuable to us and when we recognize it as such we dearly hold on to it there are things in here that have no interest to you but i wouldn't sell them i wouldn't give them away because when i look at them they represent something about my life that i want to remember is usually a good thing and it's it's something that i can't replace and so i treasure it and that's how we must look at the things of god in luke chapter 18 we didn't have the time to go through this verse with the kids and perhaps it was not appropriate for their level but let's look at luke chapter 18 beginning in verse 18 another of christ's parables but actually this this is actually jesus being asked a question by a rich young ruler verse 18 of luke 18 it says a certain ruler asked him saying good teacher what shall i do to inherit eternal life so jesus said to him why do you call me good no one's good but one that is god you know the commandments don't commit adultery don't murder you're not stale do not bear false witness honor your father and your mother and the rich young ruler said all that i've done i have kept them since i was a young kid the camp you can do and jesus heard these things and he said to him you still lack one thing sell where did we hear that again earlier matthew 1444 the man who found the treasure in the field he went to sell all that he had the man who found the great pearl price went to sell all that he had to buy the pearl of great price or the field jesus tells this ruler sell all that you have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me but when he heard this he became very sorrowful for he was very rich he wasn't ready to sell all that he had because he treasured what he had more than he treasured the things of god and the knowledge of the kingdom and what he was attracted to but as when he counted the cost it was too much so he decided not to buy the field he kept what he already had when jesus saw that he that he became very sorrowful he said notice who became sorrowful it was the rich young ruler christ said he said how hard is it for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of god look if you've got enough money to buy and build a fabulous mansion with an indoor pool and servants and grounds and two more like it in choice locations with all the cars that you could ever imagine and you can fly there in your own gulfstream five you don't need the kingdom you don't need the kingdom you've got your kingdom you've got your kingdom of god you've got your millennium you've got your utopia you don't need the things of the kingdom if that young ruler was that rich he really didn't need it he said it's that's why it's it's hard not that you can't enter rich it's just that it's hard to if you value your jet your homes your cars your money if you value that more than the spiritual there's the difficulty christ told him to sell what he had it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god those who heard it said then who can be saved but he said see he said the things which are possible are impossible with god with men are possible with god and peter said see we've left all and followed you peter sold his boat his nets sold his fishing rights sold his business he said we we've we have sold all and we've followed you so the implication is what do you mean what's in it for us and jesus said assuredly i say to you there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children for the sake of the kingdom of god who shall not receive many times more in this present time and in the age to come eternal life this is one of the hardest verses in the bible to understand to apply properly and to really grasp the point at times in the past and people have felt they had to basically turn their back on their families that's not all that christ is saying that's really not at the heart of what he's saying we don't have to turn our backs on our families more often than not families turn their backs on one who begins to follow god's way but what jesus what jesus is saying look you have got to come to the point where your your possessions and those relationships which you can't really put a price on brothers and sisters parents children you've got to be able in your mind and your heart you come to the point where you understand that god's kingdom is more important that doesn't mean you neglect your parental duties your duties as a parent to your children or to your aged parents that's not what he's saying that's not what's being addressed here this is addressing one of these heart issues of an mindset and a frame of mind in terms of our prioritization of of life and stretches throughout our life he says you come to that point and you're willing to do that he said i say to you that there's no one here to go back and pick up the thought then go to verse 30 he says who shall not receive many times more in this present time and in the age to come eternal life so it inherent here is the promise that god promises to provide sometimes physically sometimes emotionally spiritually what we at least may have to give up decide we would if it is necessary god compensates his form of compensation runs a little different at times than the books we might keep but it is a promise but it is a promise and it is a promise we have to be willing to gain to come to a point to really understand what the kingdom of god means and the treasure that it represents and when when it comes to selling what we have to buy that field or to follow Jesus to have eternal life as the rich young ruler question we have to be ready willing and able i've known some of my peers have had to give up family some have i've even heard with my own ears been willing to give up their fortune which wasn't a large fortune but it was enough at a critical time to fill a particular need i heard one of my peers be willing to give over their fortune to preserve something it turned out they didn't have to but i knew the heart and the others that made the request knew the heart was there and i think god knew and maybe in that case didn't require it for the moment as other means came to the fore to preserve something but it's the willingness which means again how we value what we have as opposed to the hidden treasure the treasures of the kingdom jesus is the example for every one of us not just in what he said here he'd already gone through that you go back to matthew chapter 4 you see that jesus had been tempted with another treasure and to give up all that he had we know the temptation that he was made that was made to him by lucifer by satan matthew chapter 4 where he took him up into the after fasting 40 days in the wilderness he was then taken and had three temptations put before him by by the devil and down in let's see let's say matthew chapter 4 are we there yet yeah matthew chapter 4 i had written down mark here and had been thinking i was in the wrong spot and we're here we are all correct in verse 7 verse 8 the devil took him up into an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory and he said to him all these things i will give you if you will fall down and worship me all the kingdoms of the world which not only meant whatever power could have been attached to that but also the wealth and the riches which goes along with the power and the kingdoms of the world that was offered as the final temptation to jesus as a human at the most extreme moment of his physical life other than his death when this was put before him after 40 days of fasting by satan and he was offered a treasure of the world and jesus said in verse 10 away with you satan for it's written you shall worship the lord your god and him only you shall serve him only you shall serve nothing more only god you see jesus knew what he already had he wasn't tempted with the power of all the worldly kingdoms and however that would have been set up through insurrection through a multitude of followers suddenly swarming around him as satan could have engineered christ knew that he had the real treasure of the universe already at his disposal he had the knowledge of the kingdom of god he goes from here into what we read in chapters five six and seven of the sermon on the mount which is a real nuggets nuts and bolts of the kingdom of god the real treasures of the kingdom of god one by one as you would go through the teachings and the sermon on the mount this is what he actually goes into after this episode of the the temptation he really lays out the gold and the silver of the kingdom of god and it's completely different treasure than any of us would ever dream it's amicus of spirit it's turning the other cheek you go through the these these beatitudes the the poor of spirit those who mourn those who hunger and thirst for righteousness those are the treasures that jesus began to offer to his disciples those are the treasures if you will to define the kingdom of heaven and those are the ones that we should treasure as well in that they are important to us we seek them we cry out for them as the proverb said and seek them as silver because they'll be found by no other means we have to go through these just to use this particular passage of scripture and there's many many other principles that we could draw into but if we were just to stick in matthew 5 6 and 7 these principles of the sermon on the mount to achieve those to acquire them to buy them if you will into our life we would have to seek for them and cry out for them and work for them and be willing to buy sell what we have which means to sell our own nature to sell it out to leave it behind and in a sense recognize that it's already been bought by the blood of christ to have a relationship with god that is based on these principles and becomes what within we treasure what we treasure it's talking with one of the mothers of one of the kids who attended the camp this week and her efforts is her effort raising her child she told me is to teach them a relationship with christ not just to teach them laws commandments holy days all of which are key vital and important but she wants to teach her child the relationship with god and to understand god from that point of view which i said if you do that you'll improve the chances of that kid being around here when he's 18 and 28 and 38 teach him a relationship with god teach him to love jesus and that will pay off that will pay the dividends that's what we want to put into our young people's minds and to love thy law as david's sing it and then we do sing it at our own psalm oh how love thy thy law as we understand it lived and taught and personified by jesus christ to do it from that point of view is to incorporate into our life the values and the treasures of the teaching of the sermon on the mount and so many of the other teachings of the gospel that then becomes the treasure that can't be purchased at any price but it has to be so valued and we as parents value that ourselves to have and want to bring that into our children's lives that we are willing to sell what we have by that we're talking about so not not not the physical possessions but things that are harder to sell and to shed from our life which is our prejudices some of our false values the values of our world around us that continue to cling to us that keep us from really giving these principles of the sermon on the mount for instance a chain a chance for success living by these teachings is the way to create everything that the fictional Count of Monte Cristo sought with all of his riches he sought to restore his life to what had been what had been robbed and taken from him the love of his life of his youth he wanted his father back but his father died penniless in the story he wanted his life back as a ship's captain free to sail command men simple life he couldn't get that back he wanted to make his enemies pay some of them did pay but human vengeance is never enough human vengeance never really provides true justice i remember when timothy mcveigh was executed at the federal prison 70 miles west of us out here in terra hote you remember timothy mcveigh and who engineered the oklahoma city bombings now they killed him in the gas chamber was it gas or electric chair whatever they did out here in terra hote and the survivors of those killed watched some there and some by closed circuit television in oklahoma city and they watched him die they were granted that because of what they had suffered and they interviewed some of them when they came out and i remember clipping that and using it in an earlier sermon and some of them said you know we had to do it but it doesn't bring our children back it doesn't bring our loved ones back i still don't feel that justice was done and that's true was justice heard well in a human sense it was attempted and a guilty man died but it didn't bring back the dead didn't dissuade the grief of the mothers and the fathers and brothers and sisters and the parents no no no element of human justice can do that that's why we keep the last great day when you keep the last great day and you understand its meaning then you understand god's justice and when a time in the future when justice will prevail the principles and the teachings of the kingdom of the kingdom and the principles from the sermon on the mount create everything that we could want the fictional count of Monte Cristo sought with his riches we it brings it will ultimately bring justice it will bring love it will bring a return to life things that our money can't buy but we have to come to the point in our life where we treasure the spiritual more than we do the physical the principles of this sermon on the mount and the other principles from the proverbs from the gospels from the epistles of Paul from the prophets those are the true treasure of life that's what we have to find if we could go back to Matthew 14 in conclusion don't you love to hear that phrase in conclusion Matthew 14 for 13 I'm sorry in verse 51 the end of this passage on the parables Jesus then said to them have you understood did you get the point are you still awake folks he's saying have you understood all these things and they said yes lord and then he said to them therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and things old to be able to understand how to apply the old testament the new testament the bible to bring out of our household treasures both new and old to apply to our life is the key to the treasure of the kingdom of heaven that is the hidden treasure God has revealed to us so your search is ended if you can only understand it recognize the value of the true treasure that is in front of us and let's keep selling piece by piece pound by pound let's keep selling what we have so that we can buy the real wealth the spiritual wealth that is in front of us if we do that then we are seeking finding and we will hold and treasure the most important thing the most important thing we could ever find the kingdom of God and the treasures of life