 |
| Rev. Brent Russett |
Pastor of
Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:
http://www.sunnysidechurchottawa.com/ _______________________________________________________
PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, January 4th, 2015:
‘Bargain Hunting’
Good morning. And welcome to good news in the
morning. My name is Brent Russett. I am
the Senior Pastor at Sunnyside Wesleyan Church. It is my pleasure to look at
some of life’s challenges, and then bring you some good news in the morning. We
at Good News in the Morning, want to wish you a Happy New Year.
I am
glad that you tuned your dial to CFRA. I want you to know that you can also
find Good News in the morning on the internet at Goodnewsinthemorning.ca .
There you can hear past episodes and find interesting articles.
This
morning I want to talk to you the gospel
and bargain hunting.
I love a good bargain. In fact I
love a bargain so much that I am willing to brave the big box stores on Boxing
day. One year I waited in line for 45 minutes to pay for what I wanted to buy. But
I love a deal. Last year I bought a 32
GB memory card for my camera, regularly 90 dollars, for $20 dollars. – Bargain
– I love a Bargain.
Now I know some of you are bargain
shoppers extraordinaire. You haggle, you clip coupons. You troll Kijiji. Some
of you blame in on your heritage. As if being Scottish gives you genetic
advantage in shopping. Some of you are just wise – you understand that a penny
saved is better than a penny earned because you do not have to pay 40% income
tax on it.
This morning I want to tell you a
story. Come in your imagination and let me introduce you to Austin Monroe.
Austin loves to hike. Places like Gatineau Park are a little tame for him, a
little too commercial. The trails are too well marked. He loves to hike in
places where he dreams that no one has been before. That is pretty hard on our
planet, so he dreams.
But he travels to places like
Northern Ontario, and hikes on crown
land. One beautiful sunny day, he is out for a hike. He scrambles up over this
granite cliff and down the other side. As he moves he dislodges a good size
stone that rolls down the hill which dislodges another stone. As Austin looks
at the mini landslide he sees a glint of something. So he goes down to
investigate. There he sees a rock, unlike any rock he has ever seen. As he
scrapes the dust from around the rock. To his amazement he discovers that it is
a gold nugget. Now the largest gold nugget ever discovered was 176 pounds. This
one wasn’t that big, he picked it up, and he could barely lift it. He figured
it must be a hundred pounds – at least.. So he thought, what should I do.
He of course covered over the gold
nugget and then he went and checked what it would cost to buy the land. It was
going to cost him $100,000.
Austin had bought a house a couple
of years ago. There wasn’t enough equity to really borrow against it, but if he
sold it he could probably come up with $60,000 dollars clear. So that is what
he did. He sold his house. He sold his car and raised another $10000 dollars.
He tapped into his RRSP’s and raised another $20000, and he sold off his
television, his computer, and even his furniture, and with it he was able to
raise the $100,000 dollars. Really he had nothing left.
Austin’s friends really wondered
about him. He was extraordinarily happy, although for a few nights he ended up
couch surfing at different friends places. When he was able to pull all he had
together he went and purchased the land and the mineral rights.
He spent $100,000 dollars, and the
gold nugget ended up to be worth $2.5million dollars. Bargain
This morning we are going to camping
out in the first book of the New Testament called Matthew. We are going to look
at verses 44 to 46. Let’s start with 44 – These are the worlds of Jesus.
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure
hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy
went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
Austin Monroe is a fictional
character that I made up to tell you the Jesus story.
In this story, you are Austin
Monroe, the kingdom of heaven is the
gold nugget. The question is, is it
worth selling off what you have to gain much more than you have.
That is a question that all of us
have got to come to terms with.
Jim Elliot was a missionary to the
Waodani people of Ecuador. He was eventually killed there for sharing the
gospel. But his death opened up the way for many people to come to know the
Lord. He settled that question for himself long before he went to be a missionary. Jim said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot
lose.”
Here is what you need to know, The
Kingdom of Heaven is a bargain but it is not free. It is true that you cannot
earn it. Jesus paid all that needed to be paid for your salvation. He paid for
your sin, for you guilt. He paid for a road to built between God and you. He
made the way for you to know God. He did it because he loves you.
The bible says, Ephesians 2:8–9
(NIV)
8 For it is by grace you
have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift
of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
What that means is that you can’t
earn your salvation. You can’t somehow pay for it. But you are required to give something for
it. You are required to give yourself.
Jesus said, If anyone would come
after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
It is sometimes referred to as the
divine exchange. You give your life to Jesus, and he gives his life to you. You
give your sin and your guilt to Jesus and he gives you his holiness and
righteousness. You give your Jesus your heart, he gives you God himself. It is
a bargain, but it is not free.
When you come to Jesus you say, Lord
(the reason why we call him Lord, is that he has authority over us) We say Lord come into my life forgive me of
my sins, I give my life to you. That is
what it means to become a real Christian – a Christ follower. If you are going
to come to Christ, you have to give your life to Christ.
Isaac Watts understood this divine
exchange when he penned the words to “When I survey the wondrous cross.” Let’s
listen to that now sung by.
MUSIC
– WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS -
Bill Gaither Trio. 4:51
When I survey the wondrous cross, on
which the prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss.
But what I concerned about - that if
we were tell the Austin Monroe story in the language of modern North American
Christian it might go something like this.
Austin was out wandering in the
forest, when he came across a nugget of gold. So he went to the bank and cashed
in a $100,000 of RRSP’s and bought the forest. It makes the perfect addition to
his other land holdings, his house, his cottage, his boat and his business.
It is not like it didn’t cost him anything..-----
But the point of Jesus story was that the kingdom of God cost the man
everything.
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure
hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy
went and sold all he had and bought
that field.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor theologian who refused to be
cooped by the Nazis. He was eventually killed by them. He was quite concerned
about a faith that wasn’t about giving our whole lives to Christ. He called
this kind of faith, cheap grace. He said
“Cheap grace is the
grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness
without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion
without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without
the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
I believe that one of the greatest
dangers to the Christian life in our culture, is when it becomes an add on to
the rest of life. Instead of Jesus becoming the centre of our life, we use him
to enhance the rest of our lives. We use him to try to become happier, or
healthier, or better. But our call is not to add him onto the rest of our life,
it is to make him the centre of our life.
It
would seem to me that a good question to ask ourselves at the beginning of the
year is about lordship. Is Jesus really
lord of your life? I know that is a really cliché way of asking it, so let me
put it another way. Come back to our verse.
Matthew
13:44 (NIV)
44 “The kingdom of heaven
is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and
then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
When you sell everything and buy a
field with a treasure in it, what are you left with. You are left with
yourself, you are left with the field and you are left with the treasure. And
everything that happens after that is going to be derived from those things.
Here is what I mean, you are not
going to leave the gold in the ground. You are going to take the gold up and
use it to build a life. The life that you build comes out of that gold.
But we know that the gold is really
the kingdom of God. The life that you
build will come out of the kingdom of God. That is Lordship. Is acquiring a
house or a car, or having a job, or friends, inconsistent with the kingdom of
God. – No. Of course not. In fact there are sometimes when these things are
blessings that come from God. But it is against the kingdom of God if these
things become the main things of your life.
The main thing is--- what is
consistent with the Kingdom of God. Do the choices you make come out of the
Kingdom of God. Does the way you interact with you children and with your
friends and with your family come out of the kingdom of God. Are the things
that you spend your money and your time on consistent with the kingdom of God.
That is what Lordship is.
So where are you at with that. Does
Jesus get not only input, but does he get the final say in the decisions you
make. That is what Lordship is. But the reality is, it is a bargain. For you
get so much more than you give up.
Let me take you back to story. And
we will go on to the second story.
Matthew 13:44–46 (NIV)
44 “The kingdom of heaven
is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and
then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of
heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he
found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought
it.
Now on the surface, the second story
sound a lot like the first story instead of treasure we have a pearl. Instead
of a man who bought the field there is the man who bought the pearl.
But
the story is not near as alike as one might think at first glance.
In the first story the kingdom of
heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field. The treasure represents the kingdom
of God. In the second story kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for
pearls. It is not the pearls that represent the kingdom, but the merchant.
This story depicts the kingdom of
heaven as a merchant on a search. Have you ever thought about the kingdom of
heaven on search.
There is this famous poem that is
too long to read here entitled “The Hound of Heaven.” It was written by a drug
addict who eventually found Christ, or more accurately was found by Christ.
The
poem starts out
I
fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I
fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I
fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I
hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown
Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From
those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbéd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat—and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet—
“All things betray thee, who betrayest
Me.”
The poem go on to tell of all things
that man chased while the hound of heaven chased him. And nothing that was
chased was worthy of the chase, but one who chased him deemed him worthy.
There is a hound of heaven. His name
is Jesus. He pursues us “With unhurrying chase, and unperturbed pace”
because you are valued. There is a merchant that searches after the finest of
pearls.
In the first story, the guy who
bought the field, stumbled on the treasure. But in the second story the
merchant is very intentional about looking for the treasure. He is on a search
for fine pearls. When he found one he sold everything he had, and acquired the
pearl.
It is interesting to me that he
acquires a single pearl. I think the reason why Jesus tells the story like that
is to let each of you know that you are unique and valuable. There is a sense
in which Jesus died for the whole world. He gave up the splendor of heaven and
he came to earth, and he gave up life and he took death upon himself – for the
world.
But there is also a sense where
Jesus died for you. He gave up all of what he had and he died for you. He was
the merchant that sold everything to acquire the pearl of great value. You are
that pearl of great value.
Jesus is that hound of heaven. He
looks for you. He longs for you. He tracks you. Why? Because he knows you are
valuable. He is willing to give his life to acquire yours. He sees extreme
value in it.
So if we put the two stories
together we get a guy who stumbled on a treasure and in ordered to acquire the
treasure he sold all he had. And we see
another guy, who finds a treasure because he intentionally is looking for it.
That is the two sides of salvation.
On one hand you have God who sees you as extremely valuable who is willing to
die for you. On the other side you have a treasure, for which to acquire you
must sell all you have to obtain. So you have God giving the life of his son
for you, and you giving your life for him. That is what the Christian faith is
all about.
I point this out because often I
think our view of salvation gets too small. In a grand transaction like this,
our faith should define who we are. But often we define and confine our faith
to a small part of our lives. In a grand transaction like this where God give
the life of his son for us and we give all of who we are to him, there is no
part of our lives which can remain unaffected. But often so many parts of our
lives remain unaffected.
This morning I am asking you to look
at your life, and see is it is consistent with your salvation. Does what you do
flow from the kingdom of God, or have you just tried to tack on the kingdom of
God as another room on the side of your house.
There are some of you listening to
me who may never have given your life to Jesus. This morning even as I have
been talking, there is something in you that says – yes that is something that
I need to do. That is God prompting you. God has been searching for you. He is
calling you and wants you to give your life to him.
I would encourage you to pray along
with me, if that is something that you would like to do. Prayer:
Lord Jesus, I
believe that you died for me. I am asking you to forgive me of my sin and come
into my life. I give my life to you. I understand that you have been searching
for me. I am thankful that you found me and I found you.
I want you to know that if you
prayed a prayer like that, God is always faithful. He does come into your life.
I want to encourage you to find a great church where they can encourage you in
your faith.
“
If Good News in the Morning has been a factor in your journey of faith, we
would love to hear your story. Nothing could encourage us more in this
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Thank you for listening this
morning. Keeping this program on the air continues to be a work of faith. If
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1W0. Or you can give online by going to goodnewsinthemorning.ca
May
you know Jesus Christ personally and
profoundly. May the Holy Spirit reside
deep within your heart . And may the
heavenly Father surround you with His constant and abiding and accompanying
love
By Rev. Brent Russett
Pastor of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:
_______________________________________________________
PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, January 4th, 2015:
PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, January 4th, 2015:
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