Treasure Hunters (Matthew 13:44-46) | Louis Azuma

Speaker: is there anything, is there anything that you would

sell everything you own to have?

Is there anything that you would sell everything you own?

Like, imagine that process of selling everything you own.

Like, you, you go through your closet.

You're like, "Nope, I, I don't need these, I don't need these shirts.

I don't need these pants."

You go to your room.

You're like, "I don't need, I don't need anything that's on the wall.

I don't need my bed.

I don't need..."

You know, your phone.

Right?

You don't...

I don't need my phone.

Maybe if you have a car, "I don't need my car."

You're saying, "I would sell all this so I have enough money to buy whatever it is."

Right?

Maybe you have an e-bike or a video game console or whatever.

Is there anything in the world that you'd be like, "You know what?

I would, I would be okay if I sold everything so I could have this."

Maybe it's not a thing you could buy.

Maybe it's you wish you could look a certain way or be good at something

or be able to experience something.

But is there anything in the world that you would sell everything to buy?

That's such an interesting thing to think about because Jesus says that responding

to the gospel well is like that.

It's like finding something that you would sell everything you own.

Like, just think about the things in your room.

Like, all of that, I would trade it for this.

That's what Jesus says is a...

That's how, what it's like to respond to the gospel well.

That's a good response to the gospel.

So two weeks ago when Pastor PJ was here, he talked about, like,

how shallow faith is, right?

A bad response to the gospel.

We're gonna talk about a good response to the gospel.

What does the right response to the gospel actually look like?

So we're gonna be in Matthew 13, Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

So right in the Bible, right, big numbers, 13, that's the chapter, and

then verses, small numbers, right, this 44 is where we're gonna be.

Matthew 13:44, okay?

Matthew 13:44

So this is actually Jesus' shortest parable, by the way.

Matthew 13:44.

Matthew 13:44

He says, "The kingdom of heaven."

Right?

So, um, the kingdom of heaven.

That's what the, the gospel is about.

It's about the kingdom of heaven.

"It's like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up."

So this guy, he's out, he's in a field.

He finds treasure, and he's like, "Oh, okay.

I'm gonna cover up the treasure."

And then in his joy, he goes and he sells everything he has so that he can buy

the field so he can have the treasure.

Right?

Because if he tells someone, "Hey, I found this treasure in the

field," guess who gets the treasure?

The owner of the field, not him.

Right?

So he's like, "Oh, I'm gonna buy it."

Right?

Imagine if, uh, I was actually looking up this recently.

There's, like, if you found buried treasure, like from, um, you

know, like the, from like the, the stagecoach, like, bandit people, right?

There's, so there's a rumor that apparently around in Denton, um, that

this cowboy bandit, um, he, in like 1870, stole 60,000 gold coins, and apparently

most of them are buried somewhere, and he died, and no one knows where it is.

Um, and people have found gold coins in this area, and each one of

these coins is worth, like, $5,000.

So 60,000 of these coins would be, like, millions of dollars.

So it's like this legend.

So it's kinda like that.

Imagine if you were like, "Whoa, I, I found this."

Uh, and then you found it, and it was, like, someone's field, right?

And you're like, "Well, I'm not...

I'm gonna go ask them, 'Hey, can I buy your field?'"

And maybe they say, "Okay, you wanna buy my, you wanna buy my land?

It's worth $5 million."

Would you buy the $5 million land to get the $300 million treasure?

You would, right?

You totally would.

Even if you went into debt $5 million, you'd be like, "Yeah, I'll, I'll take

the $5 million loan, and I'll go buy the $300 million treasure," right?

That's what's happening here.

This dude, he says, "Hey, I found this treasure.

It's hidden, it's in a field."

And so he's like, "I'm gonna sell everything, because guess what?

What I'm getting, way better.

What I'm getting is so much better than anything I could give up."

And then Jesus says something similar the very next verse, verse 45.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant.

He's searching for fine pearls."

And he finds one that's the best pearl out there, right?

Of great value, and so he went, and he sold everything he had so he could buy it.

Because what he's saying is, "If I sell everything, guess what?

This pearl is worth more than everything."

Right?

So and it's actually a, when you think about it, it's a,

it's a good trade, right?

Just like buying the $5 million field to get the 300 million treasure.

Like, that's great.

That's actually good business, right?

That's good math.

That works well.

And so what we're gonna see is we're gonna see three, three things, three kind of

aspects of a good response to the gospel.

Jesus is saying, "A good response to the gospel is being like one of these people."

I'm gonna give up everything so I can have this awesome thing.

And the first one that I want you to see is, see the commitment here.

Right?

Both of these people, what do they have in common, the merchant

and the guy buying the field?

They sold everything.

Right?

They didn't sell some of their things.

They didn't sell most of their things.

They didn't sell the things they kinda didn't want.

They sold everything so they could get this.

What Jesus is saying is the, the person making the decision

has to, they have to do it.

They have to commit.

They have to go all in.

They're not just saying, "Well, maybe I'll, I'll sell some of my stuff that

I don't want and I'll, I'll get..."

This happens sometimes.

I'm in the, I'm in the fantasy baseball league with the high school boys, and,

uh, sometimes you get a trade offer and you're like, "All right, dude,

you really don't want my players.

'Cause if you wanted my players, you would offer good players.

But instead, you're offering me, like, your worst player off your bench,

you're offering me your backup second baseman," and you're like, "Okay, I...

You really don't want this," right?

It's gonna get hot.

If you really wanted it, you would offer your...

You'd give your best offer, right?

You would say, "Here's my...

Here's m- here's, here's the good offer.

This is what...

This, I really want your guy.

Here's what I'm gonna offer you."

So what's happening here is he's saying there's no going in halfway.

A good response to the gospel isn't half-hearted.

A good response to the gospel isn't saying, "Jesus, I kinda trust you,

but let me see how it goes for a bit, and then I'll really trust you."

A good response to the gospel isn't saying, "Jesus, I, I know that you

say some good things, and I like some of the things you say, but I don't

know about all the things you say."

Or, "I agree with most of what the Bible says, but I'm not

sure about this one part."

Or, "I, I like Jesus, but I don't like church," or, "I like church,

but I don't like Jesus," or, "I like some church people, but I

don't like the Bible," right?

There's no, you know, dividing it up, right?

It's a all or nothing.

So the first respon- or first part, I guess, of what responding to the gospel

look like is, uh, no backup plans.

No backup plans, right?

This guy doesn't have any hidden reserve of money.

He's selling everything, right?

Savings account, gone.

Checking account, gone.

Right?

Maxed out the credit card, sold his car, right?

Everything's gone.

He doesn't have any ... 401, empty, right?

He has, he's got nothing left.

Everything is on the table.

He's not saying, "Well, just in case it doesn't work, here's my, my secret

stash of money that I'm saving up."

Um, recently I played this game, um, with fake money, and

it's a, it's a gambling game.

I played it with a, at men's retreat actually, and it's,

uh, it's called Camel Up, okay?

Um, it's called Camel Up.

And, um, it was, it was Clay's first time playing actually.

We were playing with Clay.

His first time playing.

And, um, Clay's strategy wa- So essentially the way this game

works is, uh, there's a bunch of camels on a racetrack, and you're,

you're betting your fake money on the camels to see which one wins.

All right?

And, um, if you choose wisely, you win.

If you choose poorly, you don't.

And Clay's strategy was to go all in on, like, every camel.

All his money on every camel finishing first.

And after the first game- Clay had twice as much money as the rest of us.

Now, I don't know if he got that money legally or...

'Cause it was his first time playing, so we didn't know if he was just

taking money he wasn't supposed to.

Uh, we're still not sure.

Right?

Bryce was there.

We're still not sure what happened.

Um, but Clay had twice as much money as the second place

person, so it worked, right?

Clay went all in on the camels, right?

He was like, the blue camel, first place.

Green camel, first place.

Everything, first place, right?

He just bet on every camel, and he won.

Right?

Um,

when you're following Jesus, there's not a...

You can't, you can't go half-hearted, right?

You can't say, "Well, I'm gonna put some of my money on Jesus and

some of my money on myself," right?

I'm not gonna put some of my money on Jesus to make me happy

and some of my money on the world to make me happy, right?

I'm not gonna give some of my heart to Jesus and some of my heart to the world.

I'm not gonna give some of my heart to my sin and most of it to Jesus.

I'm not gonna follow Jesus and hold onto some of my sin, right?

There's no 90% Team Jesus, 10% Team Me.

That's not how this works.

It's 100% Team Jesus.

And also, no one else can do it for you, right?

This isn't, "Oh, well, my parents follow Jesus, so they can just

kinda, kinda bring me along."

Right?

It's, you know, you have to give up everything to follow Jesus too, right?

You have to sell everything for yourself, right?

This guy didn't go say, "Hey, um, there's this treasure in the field.

How about I sell half of my stuff, and I'm gonna get my best friend

to sell half of my stuff, and we're gonna go in together on this Jesus

thing in case it doesn't work out?"

Right?

There's y- y- your parents being Christians doesn't save you.

Your parents going to church, your parents being pastors, whatever it

is, that doesn't impact you, right?

In terms of whether you're a Christian or not.

And it happens to a lot of, a lot of people, right?

You grew up in church.

You say, "Oh, we do church things.

I like church."

And but you've never actually decided to follow Jesus yourself.

You've just kinda been dragging along with your parents, right?

Kinda like, um, Bryce was telling me, um, he was trying to save gas by, by

drafting behind a, a big truck, right?

Um, you ever...

Or like think of like when you're in the water behind a boat, right?

You can kinda float along in the current.

Right?

Sometimes that's what young people like you guys try to, try to do,

not intentionally sometimes, but, "Oh, my parents are Christians.

They go to church.

I go to church.

I like it.

It doesn't bother my life.

Nothing about it really offends me.

So I'll just go along with it and see how it goes."

Right?

That's not what following Jesus is like.

Right?

There's no, there's no backup plans.

There's no, no going in, in halfsies with following Jesus.

Right?

It's a full 100% commitment.

So the second thing I wanna show you is in the second part, second parable.

Verse 45, "The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls.

He finds one pearl of great value.

He went and he sold everything that he had and bought it."

Now, the reason, right, this is a, a, a good deal is because the pearl is worth

more than everything he sold, right?

Just like the $5 million y- field, you're like, "Okay, that's fine.

I'll, I'll sell all my stuff for the $5 million.

I'll buy the field."

Great, 'cause it's worth...

It's a good deal.

It's actually a...

Like, that's a good decision.

No one would tell you, "Oh yeah, that's a, that's a bad financial decision."

Right?

Like, if you had a financial advisor, he might even say, "Yeah, that's a...

Maybe that's a good thing," 'cause your, your, your return

on investment is, is huge.

The treasure is worth more than everything, right?

The cost is super high.

The cost is everything, right?

You remember that, um, scene from Endgame or Infinity War where they ask Thanos,

like, "Hey, what did it cost you?"

And he goes, "Everything."

Right?

That's what I'm thinking right now.

Um, the cost is really high.

The cost to follow Jesus is super high.

Following Jesus costs you everything.

Everything's on the table, right?

There's not any part of your life that you can say, "Jesus, you can do your stuff

with most of my life, but not this part."

Cost is really high, but it's worth it.

The cost is super high, but it's worth it.

And so even though the trade is giving up everything, what you get back is

even better than everything you gave up.

So the second aspect of the right response to the gospel is there's no regrets.

No regrets.

It's worth it.

I really wanted to misspell it and put, "No regerts," and see if anyone noticed.

If you're gonna get a tattoo that says, "No regrets," make

sure it's not, "No regerts."

Speaker 2: What is this?

I, I think I see

Speaker: where it is.

But the whole point is even though the cost is everything, it's worth it.

Even though when you follow Jesus, you're telling Jesus, "Hey, you have

full authority over my life," right?

"Jesus, if you ask me to do anything, you're the boss.

I'm not."

Huge cost, right?

But it's worth it.

What you get is worth it.

Um, I don't know if you know who this guy is.

Um- This guy's a lot of money.

But so, um- It's Jordan's dad ... in- Jordan.

Jordan's dad.

Um, in 2002- Before you all existed.

Um, he was actually...

I don't know if you guys know what PayPal is, but sometimes when

you're trying to pay for something online, you run into PayPal.

He was involved with PayPal, and so he sold his company for $180 million in 2002.

Okay?

So I mean, if you do that, you got enough money for the rest of your life, right?

He could have sold, sold his, his PayPal company and been like, "Great, I'm set.

Don't have to work anymore.

I'm good.

I got all the money I need for the rest of my life."

Um, but instead he, you know, he wanted to, to do other things like

make spaceships and cool cars.

And so he, he starts, you know, he's working on Tesla and SpaceX, right?

Those are his companies.

And by 2008, he's put all of the money from PayPal, $180 million, into these

companies, into Tesla and, and SpaceX.

And by 2008, um, our friend Elon was unable to pay rent because

his companies were doing so bad.

So h- six years, $180 million, gone.

Um, and he, he was borrowing money from friends, like, for groceries and for gas,

like, for living, 'cause his electric car wasn't working, so he had to buy gas.

Um, but...

And both his companies are about to fail.

So people told him, "You can't support both.

You have to...

You gotta, you gotta at least get rid of one."

And he's, like, barely making it.

But he put all of his money, all of his resources into these companies,

and now his net worth is $700 billion.

So his $180 million, PayPal, he gave it all up, right?

He gave up $180 million.

Would any of you...

If, if I said you could have $180 million for sure right now, or maybe

you can have $700 billion later, right?

Some of you would probably just take the 180.

You'd be like, "I'm good with $180 million.

I'm fine.

That's...

Sign me up.

I'm cool with that," right?

But he said, "I'm giving up $180 million," and he didn't know

what was gonna happen, right?

He's...

He can't even buy groceries.

But now he's worth $700 billion, right?

The cost, super high, $180 million.

But the treasure, far better.

That's kinda like following Jesus.

The cost is super high, right?

Following Jesus means you're not in charge of your life anymore, right?

God is.

Right, following Jesus, the cost is very high.

Jesus says, "Take up your cross and follow me."

Right?

"Deny yourself."

Essentially, he's saying, "When you follow me, you and your ambitions

and your dreams, those die."

But guess what?

What Jesus has for you is better.

It's better than the dreams you have.

It's better than the plan you have for your life.

It's better than what you want your life to look like in 10 years, or the

way you want your career to go, or even the way you want your middle school

or high school or college time to go.

What Jesus has for you is better, even though you might be giving up your dream

college experience or your dream career to follow him, or your current friends

to follow Jesus, or your lifestyle, or that thing you love so much.

It might cost you everything, but everything you give

up for Jesus is worth it.

You're never gonna regret something you gave up to follow Jesus.

Right?

No one in heaven is like, "Man, I'm so disappointed right now.

I'm so disappointed that I did that.

I'm so disappointed that I loved sacrificially instead of being selfish.

I'm so disappointed that I was patient with that person instead of lashing

out and being angry and vengeful."

That's really hard to do, and it might cost you, right?

Maybe that person gets to feel like they're walking all over you because

you're forgiving them and you're turning the other cheek, and it costs

you a lot, and maybe people at school think you're weird because you like to

talk about Jesus and share the gospel.

Maybe you have to walk away from some friends, right?

Maybe you have to wake up earlier to read your Bible.

Maybe you have to give up on what you wanted to do with your life.

But you're never gonna get to heaven and say, "That wasn't worth it.

I shouldn't have done that."

You're never gonna ... Like, no one in heaven is even,

like, a tiny bit disappointed.

No one's even underwhelmed in heaven.

Like, "Oh, man, Jesus, I know I, like, followed you my whole life,"

and now it's like, "Oh, okay.

Cool."

No one, no one's even saying that.

Now, I'm not saying that following Jesus means you won't make mistakes

and you won't have questions, you won't have doubts, you won't have problems.

Right?

But what I am saying is that Jesus is better than anything

else you could live for.

Right?

The treasure in this parable is Jesus.

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.

The treasure is, is not a place, right?

It's not, "Oh, I get to go to heaven."

The treasure is not, "Oh, I get to not go to hell."

Right?

Maybe that's why you're, you wanna be a Christian is just,

"I don't wanna go to hell."

Right?

Well, then what's your treasure?

If your Christianity is about you not going to hell, what's your treasure?

You are, 'cause you're doing it for you.

You're trying to protect yourself,

right?

But if your Christianity is about, "I wanna be with Jesus.

I love Jesus.

I need more Jesus," He's your treasure, right?

So, don't make your Christianity about solving your problems or

getting life coach advice from Jesus.

Or, you know, "Oh, I'm sad about something, so I should

trust Jesus, and He'll help me."

He, He will, but don't make it about you, right?

'Cause if, if no hell is your treasure, your Jesus isn't your treasure, right?

So the, the treasure here is, is Jesus, and the point is that He's better,

and what He has for you is better.

And maybe you're thinking, "Well, the world has so much

to offer, though," right?

'Cause like, uh, I, I hate to say this, but I was your age, right?

And I I know what it's like to say, "Well, I wanna try it.

I wanna go to college and do that.

I wanna not be with my parents and, and try to do that," right?

What if it is?

Because maybe you've never gotten to...

Maybe your...

You know, your parents have rules, and, and they're saying, "Oh, well..."

You know, you're like, "Well, if I just tried it, I just wanna see how it is.

Maybe it is better than, than what Jesus says."

There's...

And th- that's why you have us, right?

That's why you have your leaders.

'Cause some, a, a lot of them, right, I think we, uh, we all in some degree

can say we've been there and tried that.

We've done that, and it's not worth it, right?

The world will always leave you dissatisfied.

You're always gonna say, "Well, I, I wish I had more of this.

I wish this went differently.

This wasn't as good as I thought it would be."

Even if you embrace your sin and you say, "Man, I get to do all these fun

things and all these great things," you get really happy for, for a little

bit, and then afterward, you're l- you, you're empty, and you want more.

And you're, "Where did it go?

Why did, why, why didn't it last?"

And so when you're at your position, it's easy to look forward and say,

"Well, I want that, and I haven't had it yet, and I need to try

it, and I wanna see how it goes."

But ultimately, if, plenty of people, right, have tried what you want to

try, and none of them have found that it's worth it compared to Jesus.

And so the point is that the treasure makes the difference, right?

What you treasure makes it worth it, right?

If you, if you love Jesus, it's worth it.

Of course you'll give up anything to follow Him.

So when we think about, when you think about being a Christian,

maybe you think about being a Christian, oh, it's a bunch of rules.

It's a bunch of stuff I have to do.

It's a bunch of things I don't like.

I don't like reading.

I don't like singing.

The Bible's boring.

Jesus is lame.

The point is that that's not, like your, your treasure is in the wrong spot, right?

You're putting your treasure in other things that aren't worth it.

And if you put your...

You, like, you know, in Matthew 6, right?

Your, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Right?

What you think is important is a magnet for your heart.

And so when you treasure Jesus, your heart follows that, what you think is important.

You think Jesus is important, your heart follows that, and that's when you end up

satisfied because it makes it worth it.

Now, if you're trying to be a Christian outside in on your own, you're

not gonna like being a Christian 'cause Jesus says, "Deny yourself."

And if you're doing, if you're denying yourself for you,

you won't like that . Right?

If you're trying to be self-controlled and, and put off sin for you, of

course you're not gonna like that.

But if you're doing it for Jesus, then it, it, it makes it worth it

because your self-control, your denying yourself gets you more of him, right?

John the Baptist said, "I decrease, he must increase."

Right?

No one likes that unless they love Jesus.

And so if your Christianity is about you, of course it's hard and you don't like it.

But the last thing I want you to see from this parable is the

attitude we see in verse 44, okay?

First, first one, right?

"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.

A man found it and covered it up.

Then, in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."

Right?

I just talked for a bit about how Christianity is hard and

it costs everything, and maybe you're like, "Doesn't sound fun."

Well, this guy thinks it's the best thing ever, right?

He's not like, "Man, I'm gonna really miss all my stuff.

I'm so sad."

He's not walking over to buy the field like, "Oh my goodness, I have to do this.

I have to give up everything.

I'm so..."

He's not like over there crying about all the stuff he'd lost, and he's

like, not like, "Oh, I really miss, you know, my whatever, my, my e-bike

that I sold to buy the field," right?

He's not like, "Oh, my goodness."

He's excited.

He's like, "I get to...

I just sold everything, and I get the best thing ever.

I'm so happy I get to do this."

Right?

He's smiling.

He's singing.

He's skipping, right?

He's, he's on his way to buy the field like you are leaving

school this week, right?

You're like, "I'm done.

I'm free.

I'm gone.

See you later."

Right?

Especially Carly, 'cause she's like, "Peace out.

I'm a senior."

Which we'll miss you, Carly.

We love you, and we'll miss you a lot.

Um, but this guy is excited, right?

His, his journey to buy this field is not like, "Oh, great.

I gotta do this.

But you know, it's good for me, so I really have to."

So the last thing I want you to see about following Jesus and responding to

the gospel is there, it's not reluctant.

You guys know what reluctance is, right?

It's like when you don't wanna do something.

No reluctance.

Um, I did something very reluctantly recently.

Um, so Shay was like, "You know, you need to eat healthy stuff,

you need to, you know, be, eat things that are good for you.

So I'm gonna try to help you like fish, 'cause fish is supposed

to be like good for you."

I don't like fish.

I hate fish.

Um- You do?

It's awesome ... I don't like seafood.

I, uh- What?

Oh, yes ... don't like sushi.

What?

Oh.

Oh.

You're Japanese.

I know.

I'm only half Japanese, though, but- Sushi's good ... I don't like seafood.

I just, I've tried it.

Uh, my favorite sushi that I tried was eel.

You haven't had any fish.

But, um, I don't like fish.

Wait.

So anyway.

There's awesome sushi.

I, uh...

So she was like, "Okay, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna make it, and I'm just

gonna, we're gonna see if you like it."

And I was like, "Okay, fine.

I'll do it."

And so she, uh, she made fish tacos 'cause, you know, that way it's not

as like fishy, you know, whatever.

And it was a good idea.

And, um, I ate it.

I ate the fish taco.

Um, but I was not enjoying the fish taco, right?

I was reluctantly eating it.

And I, I did it 'cause I was like, "It's good for me.

I love my wife.

She made this.

I'm gonna do it," right?

Um, so I did it very reluctantly, right?

But, and there's a meal I had recently that I didn't eat reluctantly.

I, I savored it, right?

I, I enjoyed every bite.

Um, we were with Shay's parents and they're super generous.

They took us to this really fancy steakhouse, right?

And we got to eat, you know, this isn't a, this isn't a picture of the actual steak

I ate, but we got to eat stuff like this.

You know, and it's so good, right?

The flavor and it was perfect.

They cooked it perfectly, the seasoning, right?

I'm just gonna show you more pictures of stuff to make you feel hungry, right?

It was delicious.

Why are you doing this?

Right?

So good.

Oh, yes.

Right?

I wasn't like, "Oh, okay, I gotta eat.

I, I guess.

You know, I, I guess if you bring this out, I'll eat it," right?

"Maybe I'll have some," right?

No reluctance on my part.

I'm, I'm excited.

I'm like, "Okay, when are we eating?"

I like, made sure I ate a light lunch so I could eat more steak, right?

Um, I'm excited about this and I'm enjoying it.

I'm like, I'm like sad that I'm eating it because that means it's going away.

You know what I mean?

Like, I was very excited, right?

Enjoying it, savoring it, right?

Going slow, and then luckily Shay didn't finish hers, so I was

like, "I get to have even more.

This is great."

It was awesome, right?

Um, here's some more, right?

Isn't it so good?

So good.

Like, can't you just like taste it?

It's so good.

Um,

I don't want your Christianity to be like me eating a fish taco, right?

And Jesus doesn't want that for you either.

Jesus says following him- Even though it's really hard, is joyful.

It's not like eating a fish taco, it's like eating a steak, right?

You, your relationship with Jesus shouldn't feel like all the time

I'm just eating my stuff I don't like because I have to, right?

Jesus wants you to savor Him, right?

To enjoy Him.

That's the point.

The point is your response to the treasure is joy.

Your response to the treasure isn't, "Oh, I guess I have to do this,

guess I have to follow Jesus."

Jesus is saying the response to the gospel is this guy is excited.

He's thrilled.

He's so happy he, he gets this treasure.

Right?

He, he wants...

If there was another treasure, he'd buy that one, too, right?

He, he's so excited about it.

Now, what I'm not saying is that being a Christian means you feel happy

all the time and you never feel sad.

That's not what I'm saying.

I'm not saying that you never need to use self-control.

I'm never saying that obeying Jesus always comes easily and naturally

to you when you become a Christian.

But what I am saying is that basic Christianity is being

super excited about Jesus.

That's not for your leaders, that's not for the super spiritual people, that's not

for, you know, s- the pastors or whatever.

That's for ev- every Christian.

There's, there's no tiers in this Christianity thing where it's like, well,

freshman Christianity, you just kinda do it and you don't like it but you have to.

And then, like, JV Christianity, you kinda like it most of the time.

And then varsity Christianity, you're, like, really excited

about Jesus and on fire.

That's not a thing.

Like, level one Christianity is Jesus is the most awesome person ever, and

I love Him, and I wanna be with Him.

That's, like, level one Christianity.

Right?

That's what Christianity is really about, right?

It's about a person.

It's about getting Jesus, right?

And maybe when you think about all the things that Christians do,

maybe you've never connected that to, "This is how I get Jesus."

That's why when we talk about reading the Bible, right?

Pastor PJ's doing this whole series about the Bible in the summer.

Why do we care so much about the Bible?

This is old books, hard to read, doesn't make sense sometimes.

What do I do?

I...

What does it have to do with Jesus?

Well, the point is the Bible is how you get to know Jesus.

Jesus is talking to you.

This is how you hear Him.

This is how you get to t- to hear what He's like and, and see what

He does and that's the whole point of the Bible, is to get Jesus.

It's not just so you can get smart or impress people or do some things

and, and be good enough for God.

The point of the Bible is to get God, not to perform something for God.

Same with prayer, right?

I was talking with, uh, one of you earlier this week, and we were

talking about how prayer is not about getting things from God.

Prayer is about getting God.

You get to talk with God.

You get to enjoy your relationship with him.

That's the point of prayer.

It's not just about, "Oh, well, God, do this stuff for me, please."

'Cause then it's about you, right?

So your relationship with God isn't really like, "Oh, yeah, this is for me."

It's for God.

You just wanna be with God, right?

Just like someone you really love, like a f- a, a really good friend that you love.

You're not hanging out with them for you.

You just wanna be with them.

You're like, "I, I really like this guy," or, "like this girl.

I just wanna...

I just like hanging out with them.

I enjoy their company."

So responding to the gospel, right?

We talk about...

Maybe y- you think about repentance and faith, right?

That's what you hear.

Oh, how do you respond to the gospel?

You repent and believe.

Maybe that's what you've heard your whole life.

Tr- it's true.

But repenting and believing is not a eating fish tacos experience.

All right?

Repenting and believing is a eating steak experience.

Right?

Turning from sin, it's really hard, but it's so worth it, right?

And trusting Jesus is not just trusting Jesus to get what you want,

it's trusting Jesus to get God.

That's the whole point.

Right?

The point of being forgiven is not so you can be forgiven of your sin, right?

The point of y- being justified, like we talk about in Romans,

isn't just so you can be justified.

The point is, you get God, 'cause now th- your barrier between

you and God is, is away, right?

Jesus took away your sin, your guilt.

He removed God's wrath from you.

Before, God was opposed to you, so you couldn't get God.

Now, Jesus takes away your sin.

Now God is for you, so you get to enjoy God.

That's the point.

So the point of all of this, all of this stuff is you get God.

And as a Christian, that's the point of all the Christian things you do, right?

That's why we sing songs.

That's why we read the Bible.

That's why we pray.

That's why we serve.

It's to get more of God, 'cause He's the treasure.

So let's pray, and we'll talk about that more in small groups.

God, you are better than everything and anything.

And I know it's hard to believe sometimes because we can't see you.

We can't touch you.

Um, you don't audibly speak to us very often.

Um, and so I pray that you help us to, um, feel that you're real.

I hope that you h- I pray that you help us to, um, believe what you say.

I pray that you help us to not just know facts about you, but to experience

the things that you talk about, right?

And when we read your Word, we see people who are really excited about you,

really happy about you, and enjoying you.

And so I pray that you help us to, um, walk those same paths, to, um, enjoy

you and to treasure you and to love you We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.