The Only Treasure that Satisfies - Adam Ogborne | Feb 1, 2026

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the Spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Well, it's it's good to see everybody here in this nice cold weather.

It's uh pleasure to be up here and open up God's word with you.

And as such, uh if you don't have a copy of God's word, if you would like to put up your hand and one of our ushers will come down the aisles and give uh get one to you.

This is our gift to you.

Please keep it.

Um the it is a pleasure to have uh God's word available and we want you to have it.

So I I know you guys are all here and nice and uh hopefully you're toasty.

Uh it's a little chilly in here.

Um, but it's great to see you all here, and I know it's a it is a pleasure to be here.

And as I look around here at everybody, we we all have uh ther certain things that are in common, right?

We're we're all human, and probably right now you're all a little bit chilly, and that's okay.

Uh we all we all breathe oxygen, we all have and and uh we have needs and wants, we have you know, food.

Hopefully you guys eat.

If you don't eat, you well, that's not a very good thing.

And we need water as well.

Uh we all have other desires and wants and needs.

And um in our our age really dictates what we uh want.

And as a baby, you want like rattles and pacifiers or something.

And and as you get older, you know, our our desires mature just like uh just like we mature, and hopefully you don't desire a rattle as you mature.

That is not a good thing.

We are we our um our desires mature, we want like marriage, we want a house, we want a family, uh, we want a good job.

These are good things.

But when we obtain our goals of say marriage or a family or a house, are you happy?

Are you satisfied with that?

Well, yeah, hopefully you are, right?

Hopefully, you know, you when you got married, you were happy.

Hopefully, when you had kids, you were happy, right?

Like that's that's a good thing.

But you're happy for a for a while.

And time passes, and and while these are good things, marriage is a good thing, the the initial intensity of that satisfaction, it begins to wane a little bit and it goes away.

So even these mature desires, they don't satisfy us.

They don't satisfy us fully.

And again, don't get me wrong, I am definitely happily married.

You know, that don't hear me say that, lovely wife down here.

Um but your eventually, your spouse, is sad to say, eventually they will let you down.

And then we still long for something.

You know, we we are people who need stuff.

You know, we we long and we keep on looking, and all throughout your life, you you will think, you know, if only I had you know, blank, you can fill it in there, you can fill it in with you know, money, fame, you know, 10% body fat, you know, whatever it is, you know, that you you're desiring something, and you think, if only I had that one thing, I would be truly happy and I would not want anything ever again.

And then we get that thing, and inevitably again that feeling passes, and then we look to something else.

Our desires, they change.

But all this really goes to show, all this shows really is that these things are not meant to be our end goal of our life.

You know, they can't be, or we would be permanently happy, right?

That joy would not leave us.

So they are not meant to fill that.

And even if you end up having everything you could ever dream of in your life, you would still be unhappy because the satisfaction of the treasure that you're pursuing, it only leads to momentary satisfaction.

So when we pursue these lesser treasures, we get lesser satisfaction.

And that fades and eventually turns into emptiness.

And what happens is that these uh lesser treasures become the object of our pursuit.

Then and when that happens, they they become our idol and they rob God of his glory, and then we rob ourselves out of this lasting satisfaction.

So what we need to do is we need to pursue the only treasure that brings lasting satisfaction.

And you may say, what is this treasure?

Well, I'm glad you asked that because that's what I'm here to show you.

And we let's open our Bibles to Matthew 13, 44.

If you had one of those Bibles handed out, is on page 908.

So Matthew 13, 44, this is a parable.

This is a parable from and from Jesus, and there's lots here, but this is the one we're looking at today.

So this is the parable, the hidden treasure.

Matthew 13, 44.

It says, The kingdom of heaven is like treasure treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.

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

So just like this man, and it's nice and short, you know, normally it reads the like really long passages, nice, nice and short for you there.

Um so just like this man, right, we need to pursue the only treasure that brings lasting satisfaction.

So clearly the treasure that we need to be pursuing, it's quite clear when Jesus is talking, it's the kingdom of heaven.

And it must be something great because the way Jesus talks about it.

So that we need to be pursuing this kingdom of heaven.

But what really is the kingdom of heaven?

We hear that a lot.

Kingdom of heaven, kingdom of heaven, but what is it?

Um, it's also known as the kingdom of God, it's the same thing.

But what is the kingdom of heaven?

Well, if if I were to ask you what is the uh kingdom of Canada, right, you you would probably be able to tell me who the ruler is.

Again, ruler, um not quite the same, but you could talk about its laws, you could talk about the culture and the freedoms and the benefits that we have living in this kingdom of Canada.

Well, the kingdom of heaven is the same thing.

You know, there's a kingdom of heaven that we can enter into right now, which is what Christ is trying to tell us here in the text.

So, in this kingdom of heaven, you know, who would the ruler be?

Well, the the ruler is God.

God is the ruler.

Jesus sets up his church here so we can work for his kingdom and we can experience its culture within this church, and we can talk to you about what the kingdom provides for you.

The kingdom of heaven provides for you.

And again, it's pretty famous.

We know we've at least heard it in the Lord's Prayer from Jesus.

When he prays, you know, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

You know, he's praying uh for God's reign on earth, in our here, and in our lives.

He wants God to reign in our lives here and now.

So if the kingdom of heaven is truly as amazing as Christ says it says it is, then really the question remains is you know, how to we how do we get into this kingdom of heaven?

That's what we want to know.

We want this treasure.

So how do we do this?

Well, when we pursue and submit to God's reign here and now, we have entered into the kingdom of heaven.

So let me say that again.

When we pursue and submit to the God's reign here and now, we have entered into the kingdom of heaven.

So simple.

And when we do this, we we will have as we look at the passage, we will have this hope in this treasure, we will have joy, and we will have contentment.

So, first, the first point here I have is when I pursue the kingdom, I will have hope.

We will have hope.

So, hope is the first thing that you will receive when we pursue his kingdom, and you allow Christ to reign.

But again, what what is hope?

What actually is this hope?

And if you look back into the text with me in verse 44 here, we see that this man finds a treasure in the field, he covers it up to go buy the land.

So he sees it, covers it up, and then he has this hope.

He sees the worth of the treasure that he finds, he has hope in this treasure that it will make his life better.

He knows the value and he knows he will get it.

He has a certain, he has a he has a certain sure hope in this treasure.

So if we pursue God's reign in our lives, if we pursue his kingdom, if we pursue his rule, it leads to true biblical hope.

And I need to be clear on what hope is.

When I say hope, uh, we often envision uh this typical hope of wanting something to happen to be true.

Like we want it to be true.

Like I hope I hit every green light on the way home, right?

That would be a very nice thing.

Probably won't happen, right?

But we hope it'll happen because it's nice to get home nice and early.

But if we contrast that with biblical hope, biblical hope is a certainty of something desirable happening in the future.

And it's based on the faithfulness of God.

So the biblical hope is a certainty of something happening, uh desirable happening in the future.

If you look at Hebrews 6, uh Hebrews 6, verse 11, and then I'm gonna skip down to 19, it says, and we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of hope until the end.

Hebrews 6:11

Verse 19, it says, we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain.

The sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.

This is what hope is.

You know, hope is our hope is based on the promises of God in his covenants all throughout scripture.

Our hope is based on God's faithfulness.

So if we want this sure hope, we must believe that it can only come from him.

And that apart from him, all our wishing, it's at best just a hope, like green lights on the way home.

But if we allow him to rule, if he saves us from our sure disaster in the future, and he gives us a present and future hope.

You know, isn't that amazing that we can have this sure hope of something happening in this future?

You know, this hope is what you receive for pursuing the kingdom of God in your life.

So we have the full assurance, like the verse says, we have a full assurance of hope through the work of Christ and what he did on the cross for us.

You know, that he paid for our sins, and that that itself was enough.

You know, our sin, our sin that God hates, Christ had paid for.

And that is it.

If you accept the offer of Christ, that means you can now have God reign in your life, and therefore you have entered the kingdom of heaven here and now, and also the present, future kingdom of heaven.

You know, you accept this gift, and now you are in his kingdom.

It's really as simple as that.

You accept the gift, you're in the kingdom.

Accept the gift in the kingdom.

It's not too complicated.

Of course, we still sin, we still mess up.

But Jesus has already paid for our sins, so you can never leave his kingdom.

You'll never get an eviction notice, and you'll never get exiled out of his kingdom.

You know, that is the great hope that we have in king in the kingdom.

So if you have never accepted this offer of Christ, I implore you with all my being to take it.

Right?

Take it now.

You don't have to wait, you don't have to wait for the end of the service.

You don't have to raise up your hand.

All you have to do is bow down your head right now and just pray to God and just say, Jesus, I am a sinner.

I need you to pay for my sin because I can't.

I want to be in your kingdom, I want you to reign in my life.

And that's it.

You're you're in the kingdom.

And when you do that, you will have this hope beyond all belief.

If you want hope in something, that is the hope that you want.

And we have the assurance of a good and perfect future in heaven, celebrating with Christ and everyone here, and that we'll be uh enjoying Him and singing and worshiping Christ forever and uh absent of any punishment, any sin, and any tears and any crying and pain.

You know, this will shape your life here and now, this this hope of an assurance of a perfect future.

If you've already accepted this offer of hope and you're already in his kingdom, you know, how is your hope?

Do you still long for and have hope in this future uh promise of salvation and all his other promises that he has shown us?

Or has doubt crept in?

Has despair snuck in and clouded our future hope when we face different trials?

You know, when you sinned, you feel like God can't or won't forgive you?

Or maybe the opposite, that you think your sin is so small that you don't even think you have to repent of it and you just ignore it and move on.

That's not how you pursue the kingdom of heaven in your lives.

The problem with us all is that even though we're in his kingdom, we still sin and then our focus then tends to shift and to ignore the kingdom of God, and we forget that we are under his rule, or we just don't want to admit that we are still under his rule, and then predictably we have worry, we have doubt, we have despair creeping in.

No, we humans were quick to forget.

We forget very fast.

And that is why, and I'm talking to myself here too, you know, this is why we need to preach to ourselves daily to hope in God.

We need to remember his promises, we need to fix our eyes on his faithfulness, his trustworthiness, and we need to long for this future kingdom of heaven.

And uh, we need to be like the psalmist in Psalm here, it says uh Psalm 42, 5.

When uh it says, Why are you cast down, O my soul?

And why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

My salvation and my God.

This is where our hope is.

We need to constantly remind ourselves that our hope that we have is in Christ.

Our salvation is assured.

God is on our side.

We don't fight this fight alone.

We have the Spirit of God who's constantly teaching us and pushing us towards uh Christ.

And he wants nothing more than for you to pursue the kingdom in your life, and he will help you do it.

What kind of God is that?

Like that's amazing.

Not only does he give it to us, but he helps us along the way.

And if you're lacking that hope today, if you are in despair, if you are feeling down, acknowledge where there is still sin reigning in your life and not God.

What sin is holding you back?

What sin do you run to so much that you are currently giving up your hope?

Do whatever it takes to get rid of that sin so you can turn to pursuing his reign in your life where there is unlimited hope.

And the beautiful thing is it doesn't stop there.

It doesn't stop with hope.

And when you pursue his kingdom, you will also have joy.

And if if God stopped there, you know, that would be fine.

We we have a hope.

We have a hope of an assured future in heaven.

But he does he doesn't.

He gives us so much more, he gives us a true joy.

And if we look back at the text, we can see that this man, when he covered it up, covers up the treasure, and in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has.

So in the second point, we can see that when I pursue the kingdom, I will have joy.

When we pursue the kingdom, we will have joy.

So if if we know that we will enter into the kingdom of God, we have this hope, right?

We have a hope in this future.

But this naturally produces joy in us, right?

We have hope, we have hope in a future that makes us happy.

We have joy.

We can't help being happy, having this purpose and a future in our lives.

Our joy starts to uh produce more joy in us.

And you know, we are we can't help but understand the value of Christ and what he's done for us.

We look at the cross and we weep with joy that he loved us so much that he would take his wrath for us.

So in our joy, we pursue his reign in our lives.

And this pursuit, it brings more joy.

Uh and it's again, it's a joy that creates joy because you better believe it that this man that when he found this treasure, not only did he have joy in it, but he he had joy in the treasure itself, right?

You don't just like you don't have just have a joy at the thought of getting the treasure.

When you actually get it, you will also have joy.

So that the joy itself is starting to produce more joy.

And this joy isn't like the joy or the pleasures that this world provides, right?

It's so, so, so much more.

This isn't temporal joy, it is an infinite joy.

What better thing can we have than infinite joy?

And if there's if there's one thing that people want more in this life, it's joy, right?

Joy, joy, joy.

In everything we do, we search for joy.

But what God is doing is He's offering you more joy than you can possibly handle.

You want more joy?

Go to Christ.

You'll have more joy.

And it's in unlimited.

You know, we were made for joy, and we can feel the longing for our in our soul to be happy.

In search of this joy, we turn somewhere.

We have to.

We are searching for it.

You know, the joy of a lot of money or again, a perfectly sculpted body.

Not I'm not pointing to myself, by the way.

Um, we all turn somewhere.

Maybe no work.

You know, I want to be on vacation my whole life.

Whatever treasure people pursue, it is so that they will receive joy out of it.

That is what we are doing.

But the problem is you're trying to satisfy the longing of your soul with a joy that is incompatible.

It's like if you were starving.

Hey, it's been days or weeks without food.

You'd be very hungry.

And you go searching for some food, and uh somebody comes up to you and says, huh, here's some new clothes for you.

And I mean, they're they're nice clothes, you know, you look at them, like, well, you know, they're nice and you like them.

Did that fill you up?

Did that satisfy you?

Did that did that make you not hungry?

No, because the clothes is incompatible with your actual desire or your need for uh for food.

And what you need to do is sink your teeth into some delicious steak or you know, a burger or your your wife's cooking, right?

You know, this clothing was a distraction.

It was bad for your current needs, and it can't fill you up.

So this is what's happening when we go search for uh a treasure that isn't the kingdom.

It's a distraction, right?

It's a distraction for the true joy that you are longing for.

And you know, often these the the good things in this world that bring us joy, they're not bad things.

Marriage is good, kids are good, jobs are good.

It's not that um yeah, it's it's not that they are bad things at all.

Um the the problem is that they are a gift from Christ to allow us to worship and praise Him more.

But we often substitute the gift, uh the Pursuit of the gift rather than the pursuit of the gift giver, who is Christ in his kingdom.

We don't pursue the right thing.

But what I want to make crystal clear here is that I'm not telling you that you can't have joy in this life.

And it not at all.

It's the exact opposite.

What I'm saying is that you're aiming too low.

What you think will give you joy, it can't.

We are looking at these things down here, thinking that they will satisfy you like a job or your kids or a spouse or popularity or friends or comfort or vacation, whatever it is, but God is saying you need these things up here, then you will be satisfied.

That is what we're looking for.

And this is a very famous quote from C.S.

Lewis, but it I think it really exemplifies the heart of it.

It should be up here in the second.

It says, It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us.

Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum, because he can't uh cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea, we are far too easily pleased.

So I'm not telling you to be unhappy.

I'm telling you that you aren't happy enough.

That the kingdom of heaven offers you more joy and more pleasures that you can handle if only you were to pursue them.

If you look at Psalm 16, 11, the verse that uh Joel prayed over this morning, it's clear where our true joy is.

It said, You make known to me the path of life, and in your presence there is fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

You know, Christians should be the happiest people on earth because we have received his kingdom.

Of course there's times of grief.

You know, the Bible tells us to mourn with those who mourn, and Jesus wept himself.

So I'm not saying you should be laughing and smiling or cheering at a funeral, but what I'm saying is that these feelings they are temporal.

They're not meant to last, and we can fall back to Christ because he's the one who sustains us.

We have this unshakable joy in him and in the future kingdom.

But what's amazing is that the joy doesn't stop there.

The joy isn't just in the fact that we know where we're going.

The joy is realized, the joy comes to fruition when we actively partake in the kingdom of heaven.

In the kingdom of heaven, right here and now, the work that the Lord has for us in his kingdom is simple.

Very simple.

Obey his commandments.

Now I said simple, I didn't say easy, right?

It's straightforward, but it's not easily achieved.

When we follow after Christ and be more like him, we get more joy.

We get joy out of this.

When we share this joy with others, when we talk to others about joy, we get more joy.

Shared joy is multiplied joy.

If we follow this, if we follow this logic, you will be most joyful in Christ when you are obedient to him.

But what does this look like practically?

Where are we to do this work?

Where can we help out other people?

Where can we share our joy with people?

Where can we join together with people in this kingdom?

Well, hopefully it's obvious.

The church.

It is where we can experience in uh it is where we can experience an ongoing positive feedback loop of joy.

This is why the church is so important uh to this world and to us.

It is where we can share in the work of the Lord, and through his work and the spirit, we have this joy at seeing lost people saved.

We have a joy when they are maturing, and we have a joy when they are multiplying, right?

That is our motto here.

There is a joy when we can help each other out, there's a joy when other people can care for us, when we are doing what Christ tells us we have joy.

And when I say church, I'm not just limiting it to this Sunday morning here.

It's all the normal practices of our Christian life.

When we read the scripture, there is joy.

When we pray, there is joy.

When we memorize scripture, there is joy.

And when we commune together in small groups and share our burdens, there is joy there.

A Christian's life is not devoid of joy.

It is in fact the mark of the Christian life.

If there's no joy, our eyes have wandered from the cross to yourself.

You know, they have moved from the vertical to the horizontal.

You got to examine your life.

What are you trying to substitute for this true joy?

Is it acceptance by your friends or your coworkers?

Uh is it comfort?

Is it the momentary pleasures of drugs or sex?

Are you prior to prioritizing other commitments over the involvement of the church?

These things won't last.

They were never meant to fill you up.

You'll never have joy if you're not a part of the life of the church.

Or if you treat the church as an afterthought.

It is your pursuit of joy in this world that you are actively uh robbing yourself of the very joy you seek.

So examine your heart and examine your desires.

Are they things that can that are allowing you to pursue the kingdom of God or not?

You know, the unfortunate consequences of you uh pursuing the things that are not his kingdom is that they will not only rob you of yourself of joy, but then they'll also rob you of your contentment.

Christ says that when we pursue his kingdom, we will have contentment.

And that's the third point here.

So when I pursue the kingdom, I will have contentment.

Now let's look back at the text here.

It says that in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buries that field.

And sorry, and buys that field.

He is willing to give up everything he has for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

And why?

Because he knows that not only is it worth everything, but also that the treasure will provide him with everything he'll need.

And don't miss that, because that's important.

He he sees this treasure will provide everything that he will ever need.

It is worth more than anything than anyone could ever accumulate in this life.

So we see that contentment really is being satisfied with the way things are because your wants and your needs, they're all met.

They're all met present and future through Christ.

So to pursue his kingdom, it means to be willing to give up everything, everything you have for his sake.

And only then will you be truly content because God takes care of you and everything you need, because he is the only one who truly can.

You can't do it yourself.

You know, I think we're often under this illusion that uh we can provide for ourselves everything that we need, that we can control our life's decision, if only we you know believe in ourselves more.

All those slogans that you see uh flying around on social media, just believe in yourself more, or just you know, put a little bit more effort into it, and you can do it.

You'll you'll be happy.

You know, how much control do you really think you have over your life?

You know, as you grow older, I mean, maybe I'm not that old compared to some of you, but I'm old enough to see and look back on my life, and I realize that if I had control, perfect control over my life, I would have done things a whole lot differently if I had this power.

But again, if you on this side, you look back and you realize that God has provided for me every step of the way.

And it really was to make us more reliant upon Him and that we could actually be more joyful and more content in Him and not in our own strength.

You know, this world seeks this contentment in their own way with again, money, power, fame, uh, sexual immorality, pride, anger, hate.

The world promises that these things will satisfy you, they will satisfy your soul, but and again, they they will for a time.

And then you go back to being discontent and often worse than when you started.

But uh I guess the obvious thing here is you know, what is making you discontent?

Is it because you know you don't have enough money?

Is it because you think your body's ugly and you want to fix it?

You want a job that you can actually enjoy?

Or maybe you want your kids to have these certain experiences that you've never had or that you did have.

You know, you want a spouse because you think they will satisfy you, or you want a house because uh the world tells you that you need one, or you want a bigger house uh because you know, bigger is always better, I guess, or you know, live in the country, or you need to live in the city, or you need to go on a vacation because we always have to go on vacation somewhere, or you want to travel the world so you're discontent because you can't do these things.

Or you're busy and you know you need to rest and relax, or else you'll be angry.

You know, you're lonely, so you're seeking comfort in pornography or in sexual immorality.

You know, you're not content because you don't serve in the church because you think that it would be better to be served than to serve.

Or you're withholding serving because you think that they don't deserve, that we don't deserve your help, or you're afraid of getting hurt again.

You're not content because you refuse to be in small groups because it takes too much time or something else.

Or you're in small groups and you're afraid to open up and you're to be real with each other because you're afraid of being judged or hurt.

You know, all these things are thinking like that these new clothes will satisfy us when what we really need is food.

But the Lord is saying to you to pursue his kingdom by giving away all these things.

Give them to him, sacrifice everything for him.

Because when you do, when you truly do, he will satisfy your soul like no other.

That there is the greatest rest and contentment in Christ than in this than in anything else that this world could has to offer.

If we read what uh Paul says here in uh Philippians 4, again, a very famous passage, Philippians 4, 11 through 13.

Paul says, Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance.

I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

What is it?

It's be I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Paul can confidently say that he can be content in everything because of the strength that Christ provides for him.

He's content when he has nothing, he is content when he has everything.

Because true contentment isn't based on things, it's based on Christ.

We have this full confidence in the providence of God.

We trust that he will always take care of us because of the fact that he gave us his son.

And if he gave us his son, of course, why else would he not give us anything else that we need?

He didn't spare his own son for our sake.

He wants us to pursue his kingdom, he wants you there.

This means relying more on him because he is the only one who's able to truly satisfy.

So let's look back at this idea of living in the kingdom of heaven.

When you are living there, God's kingdom is able to supply all your needs.

You know, everything you want: your food, your housing, everything, because he is the king and he has full and total power.

If you look back at the text, we we have to sacrifice our here and now and everything for the promise of eternal rewards.

You know, I don't know if you've ever heard of the saying, uh, delayed gratification is enhanced gratification, but it's true.

If you think of your uh vacation and the anticipation that you have before it, right, it builds up.

You know, you think of where you're going in the summer in this freezing cold weather, and you just can't wait to go wherever it is, right?

And so that anticipation, it makes you actually more joyful and more content in your circumstances because you know where you are going.

You know that you're you're set for this place at the beach.

You know, we have a nice beach at our place, Inneso Beach.

Uh, you can come by sometimes, right?

But it we have this nice uh this anticipation that it's holding us over.

That this is what it is like for us.

When we offer up everything we have, when we have when we do that, we we look forward to the anticipation, with anticipation to the day that we are with Christ and we'll be with him forever in heaven.

The anticipation is supposed to build and supposed to give us this contentment here and now.

So giving up everything you have for his kingdom, it can be a sacrifice.

You know, you have to sacrifice your comfort in this world.

But we miss something really important if we leave it there.

This man had hope, he had joy, and he had contentment when he gave up everything.

And what we miss often is that this shouldn't be a sacrifice.

You know, the man had joy in the act of giving up everything.

So is it really a sacrifice when you understand the value of the kingdom of heaven?

When you truly know the value of the treasure?

Is it actually a sacrifice?

Like right now, if I asked you to give me$50,000, whoa, that's a lot of money.

But I promised you, and you trust me, that I'll give you a billion dollars in return.

Is that really a sacrifice to give up your$50,000 when you know you're gonna get a billion in return?

I would say it's not.

Again, when you look at it initially, you would say, well,$50,000, that is a lot of money.

And it seems like a sacrifice.

But when you compare it to the worth of the treasure, to the billion dollars, it's nothing and it's no sacrifice at all.

This is the same thing with the kingdom of heaven.

If I can guarantee you eternal hope, eternal joy, eternal contentment, eternal love, eternal peace, and in return, you you have to be willing to give up everything for his sake.

Is this really a sacrifice?

Is it really sacrifice compared to the gift being offered to us in Christ?

And I I often think of this quote, and I think this quote from Jim Elliott, it sums it up nicely here.

Uh he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

So Christ is telling you to pursue the only treasure that brings lasting satisfaction.

So let's pray.

Father in heaven, we uh we love you and we we want this uh eternal hope and and joy and contentment in our lives.

And Father, just now, if we are thinking about this and we're thinking about our lives, help us to examine where we are falling short, examine where our eyes have slid from the cross when they have uh slid from you, and they're focusing on ourselves and on our positions and our own daily lives, Lord, and uh convict us of where we need to grow, of what we need to do to have this joy back in our hearts and back in our lives.

We we see it in Christ, we see uh the eternal joy that we could have if only we if only we apply it, if only we seek after you, if only we pursue the kingdom of heaven, if we pursue the reign of Christ in us.

So, Father, I just ask for everyone here, as for myself, that as we go in this week that we would pursue the kingdom, we pursue Christ's reign in our life, so that we can have uh eternal joy and eternal contentment.

Ask these things in your name.