Buried Treasure- Part #1

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The following is part one of a two-part program. Do you feel like you're on a religious treadmill? Do you feel like Christianity is just a system of rules and regulations?

I can do this, but I can't do that. Do you feel like your efforts to reach God, find God, and please God are futile? Do you feel like your faith is dead or alive? Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Now let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious. Okay, if you have your Bible, open up to Luke chapter six.

We're going to be looking at verses 12 through 26, and I've entitled tonight's message Buried Treasure. A first century Hebrew was walking alone a hot afternoon with a staff in his hand. His shoulders were slumped over, and his tunic was stained with sweat, but he didn't stop to rest. He had pressing business in the city. He veered off the road to take a shortcut through a field.

He knew that this would not be a problem as travelers were allowed this courtesy by the landowners. However, the field was uneven, thus he, to keep his balance, he was taking that staff and hitting the ground with it. When all of a sudden, his staff struck something hard. He stopped, wiped his brow, poked again, thunk, something was under there, and it was not a rock. So his curiosity won out as he jabbed the ground, and as he did, he saw a reflection of light. So he dropped to his knees and started digging. Five minutes later, he uncovered a case surrounded in gold, and by the look of it, it had been there for decades.

With his hands shaking and his heart pounding, he pried off the lock and opened the lid. What did he discover? A treasure more valuable than anything he could have ever imagined.

That case was filled with gold, jewelry, and precious stones. He thought to himself, some wealthy man must have buried the treasure and then died suddenly, taking the secret of its location with him. So he looked around, but he didn't notice a homestead anywhere. So what he did, he buried the chest and marked the spot. He figured that the current landowner must not have known what was hidden on his property. That's why he buried it and marked the spot.

He turned to head home, but now instead of being slumped over, he was skipping like a child and smiling broadly with a song in his heart and a smile on his face. He could not believe his fortune. He knew he had to have that treasure, but also knew he couldn't just take it. By law, whoever purchased the field assumed ownership of everything in the land. But how could he afford to buy it? He thought to himself, I'm going to sell my farm, my crops, all my tools, and all my oxen. Yes, I'll sell everything.

Surely that will be enough. From that moment forward, his life, man, was never the same. The treasure captured his imagination.

It became his reference port, his new center of gravity. He began to take every new step in life with this new treasure in mind as he experienced a radical paradigm shift. In Matthew 13 verse 44, Jesus tells a similar story when he says, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.

When a man founded, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold off everything he had and bought that field. In his wonderful book, The Treasure Principle, which is written by Randy Alcorn. By the way, you should read this book for you guys that don't like to read.

It's only 60 pages long, and it's just a little booklet. Randy Alcorn writes, all your life you've been on a treasure. Did you know that? You've been searching for a perfect person and a perfect place. If you're a Christian, you've already met that person.

What's his name? And you're headed to that place, heaven. I completely agree with what Alcorn wrote. From the moment we're born, we're all searching for treasure, some treasure that will satisfy the inner longings of our hearts and give us purpose, meaning, joy, peace, and even eternal life. That treasure is God. He is the only one man, I know this from experience, who can satisfy the deepest desires of your heart. St. Augustine put it like this, you made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. So let me ask you a question.

Be honest. What is your treasure? Who is your treasure? Jesus said in Matthew 6 21, for where your treasure is, there also will be your what? Your heart. As I said, we're going to look at Luke chapter 6, verses 12 through 26, and what we're going to do now is we're going to dig for hidden treasure.

Are you ready? So follow along with me. Luke writes in verse 12, one of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose 12 of them, whom he also designated apostles. Simon, whom he named Peter, his brother Andrew, James and John, remember the fishermen, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, the tax collector, Thomas, Doubting Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Think about that. He chose Judas knowing that he was not going to be a good man. So men, here lies the first treasure that you will discover on your journey called the Christian life.

It's called what? Prayer. Jesus is God's one and only son. He understood prayer, the importance of it more than anyone else. As you study the gospels, you will discover that Jesus prayed often and he prayed for long periods of time. Notice here that it says he prayed for how long? All night. You ever done that?

I know what I don't have. I'd fall asleep after about 15 minutes, particularly at night time. So that prayer that he prayed that night when he was communing with his Heavenly Father lasted about 10 hours until the sun came up. Now, why did Jesus, as the Son of God, need to pray in the first place? Well, because he was also the Son of Man.

Remember, he is the God-man. When he left the glories of heaven, Scripture says in Philippians 2, 7 and 8, that he made himself nothing. The ESV says he emptied himself, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man. What does it mean that he emptied himself?

Let me tell you what it does not mean. It does not mean that he gave up his deity. That would be absolute heresy. It's better to think of Christ emptying himself as temporarily setting aside the use of some of his divine prerogatives. Rather than stay on his throne, he submitted to his Father's will. He emptied himself, made himself nothing, and came a man just like you and me with flesh and blood, except he was the God-man. He was both God and man. Thus his glory while it was on earth was veiled until the Transfiguration, and one day we're going to see him in all of his glory, and I can't wait.

Do you think the world could use a little glory tonight from Jesus? See, as a man, Jesus completely submitted himself to the will and wisdom of his Father. At this point, he's really beginning his public ministry, and he knows that he, and he's got a lot of disciples following him, many, many more than the Twelve, and so he prays Almighty because he wants his Father's wisdom on whom he is to choose. He prays Almighty. It's such an important decision.

Think about it. He's going to hand the Gospel over these Twelve at some point and send them out into the world, and so he's got three years where he's going to pour himself into these Twelve men, his teaching and himself, his whole life. Thus he sought the Father's guidance before he chose the Twelve, and then he commissioned them to be his apostles. Mark 1 35 says, very early...

I love this verse. What's the best time to pray? Very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.

Do you have a prayer closet somewhere where you can get alone and pray? Luke 5 16 says, but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. See, Jesus understood this great treasure, man, that God gives to his children.

Catch that. He gives it to his children. Prayer and his prayer. This is why Jesus prayed long and often to his heavenly Father. Did you know that prayer is a gift from God that's reserved only for his true children? Unbelievers don't know how to pray, and the only prayer I believe that they that God hears of an unbeliever is when they cry out, Lord save me, and then he saves them. He becomes their heavenly Father, and then they can experience what it's like to have this incredible fellowship with God the Father 24 7. Are you taking advantage of the gift of prayer?

It's a great treasure. Samuel Chadwick says, the one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but Satan trembles men when we pray. A man on his knees is the most powerful man in the world. Thomas Watson said, I love this, prayer delights.

Think about this. God's up there listening to you men when you pray. It says, prayer delights God's ear. It melts his heart. It opens his hand. God cannot deny a praying soul.

Did y'all hear that? I got news for you. If you've got something that's a burden, what would the hymn tell us to do? Take it to the Lord in prayer. He's going to either say yes, no, or wait.

If he says no, he's going to give you a reason for it at some point. You'll understand it. Take it to the Lord in prayer. When I wake up in the middle of the night, which is when I do more and more often, three o'clock in the morning, wide awake, I just start to pray. And if I'm worried about something, at night time we worry more, don't we, in the daytime. Something about the daylight drives away some of your fears. When I'm alone at night in my bed and I'm awake and crazy sleeping, I just start asking the Lord for His help.

This life is difficult because you haven't noticed it. Now, I want us to dig now for the greatest treasure of all. Look at verse 17. It says, He went down with them, Jesus did, and stood on a level place. This could have been, guys, the Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on the Mount, or this could have been another sermon that He gave on a plane that was similar to the Sermon on the Mount. Similar to the Sermon on the Mount.

Either way, it's pretty much the same sermon as the Sermon on the Mount. It says, A large crowd of His disciples was there, and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. Word had gotten out. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch Him because power was coming from Him and healing them all. Remember the bleeding woman who touched the cloak of Jesus, and she was healed instantly? And He said, Power has escaped out of me who touched Me. And so I said, Lord, you've got a thousand people here. And the woman said, I was the one. Her faith healed her. Nothing but a touch from the Master. Looking at His disciples He said, Blessed are you who are poor. That's interesting.

Really? Blessed if you're poor? For yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, and insult you, and reject your name as evil. Because now, if you've really been an evil person, that's got nothing to do with God.

But if they are excluding you and insulting you because of the name of, because of the Son of God, because of Jesus, then that's something to rejoice about. Jesus has a way, men. Have you ever noticed His of turning worldly ideas and man-made philosophies upside down? What the world calls good, Jesus calls evil. And a lot of what the world calls evil, Jesus calls good. What the world puts forth is wisdom, Jesus calls foolishness.

And who the world holds up as a role model, Jesus detests. 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verses 18 through 21 is one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. That and 1st Corinthians chapter 2 on wisdom. Listen to what Paul writes to the church in Corinth. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

Did y'all hear that? The world thinks we're crazy. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Have you experienced that power, men? For it is written, and this is God speaking, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. And then Paul basically mocks, where's the man of the world? Where's the scholar?

Where's the philosopher of this age? Who has God, has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him. Catch this, God was pleased through the preaching, through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. I remember one time a coach in the ACC said he didn't see what a man who died on the cross 2,000 years ago has any relevance to his life. And he claimed to be a Christian. Jesus truly turned the world upside down with his radical teaching. So what's so radical about what he says here in this text? Well, listen to what he's telling his followers, it's blessed to be poor, it's blessed to be mocked, it's blessed to be insulted.

And then he says, he's telling his followers not to pursue the shiny objects of the world, treasures of the world, the glory of the world. Why? Because they don't. Because those objects, those things in the world that you can touch and see, they were never meant to satisfy.

They never do. They were like broken cisterns that cannot hold water. Jeremiah 2 13 says, my people have committed two sins. This is God speaking to the Israelites, but the same thing applies to the United States of America today. They have forsaken me, our country, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns, that cannot hold water. So what are some of the broken cisterns that we in America are pursuing? The pursuit of wealth, the pursuit of pleasure, the pursuit of power, the pursuit of popularity, and yes, even the pursuit of religion.

These are all empty cisterns that cannot and they never will bring nourishment to your soul. Do you believe that's true? In verses 20 through 26, you need to understand that Jesus' audience is primarily the 12 apostles, but there's also still a great number of disciples that are gathered there listening to him. And I believe that many of those are still trying to figure out if they're really going to follow him and do some of this stuff that he's talking about.

In fact, I believe that many of them are going to turn away. If you go look at John chapter 6, it says that his teaching became so difficult that many turned away. And so he looked at his disciples and said, are you going to turn away too? And what did Peter say? He said, no, Lord, you're the only one.

I think he said this not exactly like this, but I think this is close. You're the only one who has eternal life. Where else can we turn? So what's Jesus teaching here? What principles? What truths?

I think there are three real important ones. I call the first one the calling. When Jesus is describing the heart of a man that God calls to follow Jesus. Second, he explains the cost. Jesus tells him right up front the heavy price they will all pay.

And then he gives this warning. He issues a warning to those who pursue the pleasures of this world. So I want us to look at each one of these briefly and separately. And so in describing the type of man that God calls, Jesus offers four basic beatitudes. They're just blessed sayings that contain a nugget of truth. So these beatitudes provide a picture, man, of the ideal heart, the ideal heart that God's looking for, who want to comprise his kingdom. It's a condition, man, that he promises will bring eternal spiritual blessings and sometimes physical blessings. But it's mainly he's talking about spiritual blessings. Now I want us to take a look at the Matthew version because Matthew gives us a little bit of more detail that Luke for some reason omits. So from Matthew 5, I want to show you that these beatitudes are clearly talking about, they're describing a man's heart.

Think about your own heart as I go through these. Matthew 5 verse 3, Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Verse 4, blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Verse 6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. And then verse 10 says blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. How do we know that he's describing a man's heart?

Because of the phrases he used. In spirit is a reference to a man's soul or his heart. Who hunger and thirst for righteousness points to the inner desire of a heart who wants to please God. And who are persecuted because of righteousness describes the heart of a man who's actually striving to live a godly life and he's leaning on the Holy Spirit to help him. So what kind of man is God looking for? Here you go.

You ready? A man with a humble and contrite heart. A man who grieves over his own personal sin and the sins of the world that he sees all around him. Yeah, we should be grieving about our own sins but also the sins of the world. And look at how far our country has run from God. A man who looks at his inner sinfulness then repents men and he turns to Jesus for salvation. And then he seeks with the Spirit's help to obey God's Word.

Does that describe you? Therefore because of his humility before God before God and man and because of his desire being to leave a life of obedience to Christ. This man should not expect to win the world's award for the most popular man in town.

Why is that? Because I can tell you right now, if you go out there right now and really make a stand for Jesus and you really are, you know, I don't mean obnoxious. I mean that you're living for Christ and you make no bones about it.

Your family knows it and your friends know it. That you're a follower of Jesus, then how should you expect to be treated? You can expect to be excluded, to be rejected, to be insulted, perhaps to be hated and persecuted and for some to literally die.

I think that's coming to America. This is why Jesus said, anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it. That's the person out there trying to find life in the world. But whoever loses life for my sake will find it. You want to find your life? You want to find life? Lose your life. Again, Jesus is turning worldly philosophy on its head. Take up your cross, die, lose your life. Who wants that?

Who's going to sign up for that? What does the world say? Live your best life now. Eat, drink and be merry.

Don't worry, be happy. There's a song that came out in 19, gosh, I think it was 1986, and I should tell you, I actually love the melody, but the lyrics are horrible. I want to be rich. You remember that song?

It's got a great melody, but it's lyrics are basically, I want to be rich, rich, rich. It's all about the money. I mean, the cross was symbolic of death, and when Jesus says take up your cross, it symbolizes what he's trying to get at men is he wants our total commitment. He wanted the total commitment of those disciples, and he was warning them that death was coming. In fact, for 10 of them, they all died as martyrs.

The only two who didn't were Judas, who killed himself, and John, who died, who was exiled on the island of Patmos. I got news for you, the same is still, the same call for commitment is still true today. If you want to be a true follower of Jesus, then you've got to be all in. When you try not for the football team, were you all in? When you try not for the basketball team, were you all in?

When you go to a basketball game, you know, when it's Carolina and Duke, or Carolina and State, or some of your two major competitors, are you cheering as loud as you can for your team? Do you feel that way about Jesus? That's what it means to be committed with your heart. In Dietrich Bonhoeffer's classic, if you haven't read, if you haven't studied his life, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, read his book, The Cost of Discipleship. He gave his life in Germany, because he's willing to preach the truth, and he plotted to kill Hitler, and he was a minister, and he got sent to a concentration camp, where he was hung just a few days before the war ended. He wrote, when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. So let me ask you, man, and I have to ask myself this, what does God see when he looks in your heart? Remember, the Lord does not look at the things man looks at.

Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at what? Your heart. It's all about the heart, man. It's all about your soul.

I've told you this before. We're not bodies with a soul. We're souls with a body. It's the soul that will live forever.

You got to make sure you take care of the soul, and Jesus is the only one who can take care of it. Now, for the warning, look at verses 24 through 26. But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you, catch this one, when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

They spoke well about them. In these three verses, Jesus is describing the vast majority of people, and we've all been there, who are relentlessly pursuing the pleasures and shiny objects of the world. So why does Jesus give such a strong warning?

I believe two reasons. First, He knows more so than anyone else that this world holds nothing, nothing men, that can truly satisfy. Not wealth, not health, not education, not religion, and not pleasure. Now I believe you should exercise, but that exercise just helps you feel good for that day.

Then you got to get up do it the next day. I'm getting tired of exercising, but I'm gonna keep on. So why would these things not satisfy? They can deliver what they promise, true joy, true peace, and everlasting contentment. Jesus, remember He told the woman at the well, if you drink this water, it will never satisfy, you'll always be thirsty, but if you drink the living water, you'll never thirst again. Who's the living water?

Jesus is. Being a Christian is not about being religious, but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at findingpurpose.net or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at findingpurpose.net. This is the Truth Network.