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Hi there! I’m Rebecca and I’d love to equip you and your team to more intentionally fulfill your purpose!

You are His Pearl

You are His Pearl

The following is based on a sermon I gave in March at Community Church Rancho on the Parable of the Hidden Treasure and Pearl. 

Do you like shopping?

I am not much of a shopper.

I do what I like to call mission shopping.  I go in, knowing what I am looking for, find it if I can, then get out.

My teen daughters enjoy shopping a whole lot more, and they and my good friend Shannon really enjoy thrifting. One of their favorite places to go is this huge warehouse that is known as one of the largest thrift stores in LA.  And for me thrifting is the absolute worst!  Because you have to hunt and go through rack after rack of yesterday's fashion and other people’s cast off to find that one special thing. It’s a total treasure hunt. 

Jesus and the Hunt for Treasure

In one of Jesus's parables, He uses a treasure hunt -much like the one my daughters and friend love at a thrift store to help His disciples better understand His Kingdom.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭13‬:‭44‬-‭46‬ (‭NET‬‬) reads, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, hidden in a field, that a person found and hid. Then because of joy he went and sold all that he had and bought that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he found a pearl of great value, he went out and sold everything he had and bought it.”

Like many of Jesus’s parables, He begins these two very short stories with the phrase “the kingdom of heaven” or "the kingdom of God” is like. This familiar phrase indicates that Jesus is going to tell us something about the way God’s kingdom works.  And usually this is in sharp contrast to the way his audience, and frankly most of us, think the Kingdom of Heaven should function. 

Treasure Hunter 

In the first story we have a guy who is looking for treasure. I think this is safe to assume because he finds treasure hidden in a field. I imagine this dude being the first century equivalent of a guy with a metal detector at the beach. When he finds treasure, he hides it, or more specifically re-hides it. He goes and joyfully sells everything he has and buys the field so he can legally own the treasure he found there. And while he quite willingly gives up everything he has for the treasure in the field, he still receives the treasure at a discount since his purchase is of the field that secretly contains the treasure.  His return on investment is immeasurable.

The Merchant

Then we have a merchant also searching for treasure. This guy is like those appraisers on Antique Roadshow who are just waiting for someone to bring in a Picaso they found in their grandma’s basement. The merchant finds a pearl of great value and sells everything to purchase it. tThe merchant isn’t out diving for oysters, trying to find a hidden treasure, that’s not really what a merchant does. Instead he finds the pearl he is looking for and unlike our field-buying-friend he pays the high price to acquire a pearl he knows to be of incredible value. 

What does it mean?

Some scholars think these two stories are sharing the same message. That they are employing an often utilized literary device and repeating the same message in different forms. On the other hand, some Biblical scholars think these two stories are looking at opposite sides of the same coin.  And, after some research, I am inclined to believe the latter. 

I think the differences in the stories indicate that in this second parable, the merchant is God and we are His pearl. The merchant pays a high price for the pearl He has found.  And God in the person of His Son Jesus has paid everything to acquire you.

 God was willing to pay everything for you. Because He LOVES you.

The Other Side of Hope 

I have really been challenged on this topic in a book I read earlier this year. The title of the book is The Other Side of Hope by Danielle Strickland. It’s this cool two sided book that looks at stories of hope, and then when you literally flip the book over to the other side it gives you practical scripturally based guidelines for fighting cynicism and despair which are the antithesis of hope.

As Strickland unpacks what fuels cynicism and despair and kills hope she landed on one of, if not the biggest challenges I think we face: we don’t really value ourselves. We don’t consider ourselves precious or valuable as we would think of a pearl. Instead, we see ourselves and humanity as not only in need of saving and healing but as wretched and worthless.  Strickland contends that is in part because of how much power the western church has given sin in the story of humanity.

God’s Plan

When God looked down in the garden after He created humans in His image He declared His creation very good. And yet we know that perfect existence didn't last  - our ancestors were deceived and like a bad genetic code sin has been passed down to us as part of our existence.And yet this spiritual mutation -sin- is not what should define us.

This is not to say that acknowledging our sin is unimportant -it most certainly is- but sin does not get the final word. JESUS does.  And He uttered those final words when He hung on that cross 2000 years ago and said, “it is finished.” Sin is the cancer, our captor.  It’s not who humans, it's not who you are created to be because you are His pearl. We aren’t sinners in the hands of an angry God.  We are children whose loving Father and Good Physician wants to kill the cancer of sin within us.  

The difference is so important because it shapes how we see ourselves. And it shapes how we see God. 

-Do we see Him as a loving Father?

-Or do we see him as an angry, demanding deity in need of sacrifice for our sin to appease him?

Because if the later is how we view god, we aren’t worshiping the God of the Bible.

- God is Love (I John 4:8)

- Jesus is the personification of God, the Word made flesh to dwell among us. (John 1:14)

- And if we have seen Jesus, we have seen the Father (John 14:9)

And how did Jesus live?  What did He show us about the Father and how He thinks about humanity? Jesus’s life showed us that He loved everyone, even those who nailed Him on the cross, even the criminals who hung beside Him, even tax collectors who literally no one loves. He loved them all.  And He loves you.  You are so loved, that He was willing, like the merchant, to pay everything for you.  You are His pearl.

When you get that mindset correct, when you understand just how loved you are, and treasure the truth of that love then the first parable makes sense!

Because you become like a man or woman, who finds a treasure hidden in a field. Who is then compelled to sell everything you own to buy the field so you can take full ownership of the treasure that you have found. Once you begin to understand the love of our Father - it changes everything.

Time-out

Now I want to pause here for a moment with a little confession. Really more like a Zack Morris timeout if you will.  I have a tendency when I speak or write to get super practical about application of Scripture. But I felt really compelled and challenges to not do that in this instance.  So as we look at how the treasure of God’s Kingdom changed everything for the man in the parable who found it. I want you to think and contemplate and ask Holy Spirit what does this mean for me and my faith?

We are all looking for treasure

Whether you've acknowledged it or not, we are all on a quest to find the version of ourselves unmarred by sin. Pastor John Mark Comer calls it “an underlying human desire for sainthood.”  Often, we become misguided in our search for this treasure.  We fill that need, that God-embedded human desire for goodness, with all sorts of other things.   And sometimes our search for that goodness gets clouded in far more subtle ways.  Some of us like the man in the first parable have the found the treasure, but we haven’t bought the field. We know what Jesus has to offer but we haven’t fully committed.  We are not all in. Is that you?  What is keeping you from fully committing to a God who loves you in incomparable ways?

Finding the treasure brings great joy

We are told the man has great joy when he discovers the treasure.  In the original language the words translated “great joy” mean “exceedingly joyful” or “calm delight.”

In the midst of your chaos and the chaos of this world, are you seeking calm delight in Him? Are you remembering Him to go to him in the midst of your troubles, to find His joy, his calm and delight?

Finding the treasure leads to a radical shift in priorities

We are told the man who finds the treasure sells everything he has to acquire the field its in. The friends of the guy who sold everything to buy the field probably thought he had lost his mind. Because they did not know about the treasure it contained. They had no way of understanding, no context.

Likewise, if we are living our life like someone who understands the value of the Kingdom of God our priorities won’t make sense to the world. The way we steward the time and resources we are entrusted with should make people wonder. Does your calendar and your checkbook reflect radically different priorities because you have found treasure in Jesus?

This upside down way of living isn't a guilt thing. This is a radical transformation that happens from the inside out because you understand whose you are thing.

The man who found the treasure had great joy as he reprioritized his life.  He was thrilled to invest in this amazing treasure he had found.

Our joy is incomplete when we try this on our own, Holy Spirit must do a work in us. Our job isn't the transformation but we have a role to play in the preparation.

How is Holy Spirt challenging you in how you prioritize your time and resources? 

A final thought

One of the practices I have been introduced to that reinforces this idea of embracing and prioritizing the treasure found in Jesus is a posture prayer from a ministry called Infinitum. It helps remind me in word and action how my life should look different because I am leaning into the truth of how the Heavenly Father treasures me. I would encourage you to give it a try, you can find it here: https://infinitumlife.com/daily-prayer


No matter where you are, I pray that this week, that you gain a deeper understanding of God’s love for you and that you are able to more fully live-out His call on your life from that truth.



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