The Treasure of the Kingdom
Pastor Tommy Bailey
A few of the ways parables help us:
● Parables give us pause.
● Parables invite us to reflect, consider and respond.
● Parables reveal truth to those who have ears to hear.
“No one ever spoke like this man!” – John 7:46 (ESV)
“Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty…” – Isaiah 33:17 (ESV)
“If we only had eyes to see and ears to hear and wits to understand, we would know that… the Kingdom of God is what all of us hunger for above all other things, even when we don’t know its name or realize that it’s what we’re starving to death for. The Kingdom of God is where we belong. It is home, and whether we realize it or not, I think we are – all of us – homesick for it.” – Frederick Buechner, The Clown in the Belfry
What do you treasure?
“You can know the lyric of the gospel but not hear the music.” – Scotty Smith, Searching for Grace
Where I spend my time, where I direct my attention and how I steward my resources reveals who or what I treasure.
“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith — that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection…” – Philippians 3:7-10 (ESV)
“Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” – Isaac Watts
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep in order to keep what he cannot lose.” – Jim Elliot (from The Shadow of the Almighty by Elizabeth Elliot)