Jesus is the Prize

Welcome to this week's podcast by Celebration Church Latatoga.

We believe this message will empower and equip you to live a life of breakthrough.

Thanks for joining us.

Have you got your Bibles here this morning?

Let's turn to the book of Matthew, chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

And I'm going to share a parable with us this morning.

It's nice and short, but it is absolutely punchy.

Matthew chapter 13, verse 44.

Matthew 13:44

I read from the English Standard Version.

Says this.

And it's a thing called familiarity.

Is when we begin to grow familiar with God.

And when we once came to Him, He was our everything.

Oh God, I just want to give you my life.

I want to give you absolutely everything.

Whatever you say, God, that I will do.

And then time goes on, and you know, season comes, season goes, the battles come.

God's faithful.

He brings us through.

He blesses us.

He pours out his abundant riches over our lives.

And what begins to happen is we begin to get familiar with the blessing.

And it's like, oh yeah, that's almost like an expectation now.

Oh God, you actually have to bless me because I am serving you.

But you take the clock back a little bit.

Man, you were down and out.

We were gone.

Like we had no hope.

There, not one of us was able to get rid of the sin and the stain on our own life.

No one was able to just say, Oh, you know, God, thanks for your sacrifice, but I probably got it.

Like that's just craziness.

We are in absolute desperate need of the cross of Calvary and the work of the cross and the blood of Jesus Christ.

The blood is the only thing that can cleanse us of our sins.

And I want to say this this morning: the blood of Jesus Christ does not have an expiry date.

There is no best before date for the blood of Christ, but one drop of the blood of Jesus Christ can wash you and cleanse you as white as snow.

But what begins to happen in our Christian walk as time goes on, we can get familiar.

And we treat God as something we use to get something else.

We say, God, if I come to you and I pray, you're gonna bless me and then I'm gonna get that nice house.

I'm gonna get that new truck, you're gonna restore my marriage, right?

My kids are gonna be awesome, my business is gonna thrive.

Okay, what we end up doing is we instead of coming to God as our Lord and Savior, what we have done, we have now shifted into a place where we use Jesus as a trampoline to bounce on the thing that we perceive to be of greater value.

Say, thank you, God, I will use you so that I can get whatever it is.

You fill in the blank.

But that is not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is not the heart of a true disciple and a believer.

Our heart is to be that we would give everything to get the treasure hidden in the field.

That our hearts would be truly and fully and completely devoted to Jesus.

Amen.

All right, God, I want to tell you this this morning.

Jesus is the prize.

We have got to get that in our minds.

He is the prize, he is the reward, not what he gives us, not the blessings, not the peace, not the material gain.

No, no, Jesus Christ Himself.

He is the prize.

When you get alone in a room and you seek God's face, and by the presence of the Holy Spirit that floods the atmosphere, your heart is lit up and you say, I have arrived home.

I'm gonna tell you when you get in that place, when you get in the presence of God, it is the reason for your existence.

There is no greater place you will ever be than in the presence of God.

Amen.

Amen.

God is our exceedingly great reward, and to seek Him and to be with Him.

Like the thought of being with Jesus, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the one who holds the world in the palm of his hands, who created all things by the words of his mouth, has all power or dominion or authority.

Can wipe you off the face of the planet with a wink of an eye if he wanted to.

Could pack up shop and say, That's how this thing's done.

Everyone's gone.

Right?

He has all power, all dominion.

The one that spoke galaxies into place and created all things by the power and the dominion of his words.

Wants a relationship with you and me.

Like it's the most crazy thought.

And we get besotted with like a guy that can kick a ball and a goal.

Or a man that can throw an I was gonna say like a dart at a dartboard.

I don't know if there's any big darts fans in the house, but like we get besotted by things people do, right?

Oh my gosh, Messi's the goat, right?

Or Ronaldo's the goat.

You don't know what goat is, greatest of all time.

If you're uh in that age of life.

But I will tell you this.

You can be in a place where you are besotted by someone.

You know, like people get besotted by the whales that jump out there, and they're they're awesome.

Believe me, you know, they have my respect.

They do a good job at what they do.

But people are like, oh my gosh, the whales.

It's like, yes, hallelujah, praise God for the whales.

But who created them?

Who was the one that actually designed a whale to function in the way that it does?

Like we praise men for the fact that, like, you know, the all blacks in South Africa, everyone, you know, gets all on on them, and then everyone's all about the was last night, and then they're crying later in the night because it's like, again, don't worry, next year, buddies.

The things we tell ourselves, eh?

But you know, you get all hyped up around things.

And I shared this about two weeks ago.

Shared it said the things of this earth are so empty.

Honestly, they come and they go.

The hype is there for a few weeks and then it's gone.

Up the was, no one's up the ways this morning.

All right, we get so hyped up, right?

The hype train only lasts so long before we move on to the next thing.

You know, I shared about the soccer world cup a few months ago.

Everyone was going crazy about like Spain, right?

I can't even point to Spain on the map, but you know, we gotta go Spain.

But it's like no one's really talking about soccer because we've moved on.

The New York Knicks won the NBA final.

OG and Anobi got the like the craziest tip in to win the game.

It was a game four, put them up.

It's like the hype was people were in the streets going crazy.

Right, no one's in the streets going crazy anymore.

We've moved on, we've got bills to pay, right?

Like life is calling.

But you and I all have responsibilities, we all have things, but I want to tell you this the things of earth are futile, they are so meaningless.

And uh, if you look at your life in the grand scheme of things, I think one of the greatest things you can do is to look at your life from an eternal perspective.

Zoom way back, look way past the 80 years.

Like we have, on average, 80 years to live on life.

Some of us will live longer, some of us will live shorter.

That is a fact.

But I want to tell you this we are going to go into a thing called eternity where it does not end.

And I want to tell you, in that place, God will receive the glory that he deserves day and night and night and day.

Isaiah chapter 6 talks about the throne room of God when Isaiah has this vision, and the seraphim are crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was, who is, and is to come.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

And they say that they're crying this day and night, night and day.

That means they are never, ever, ever, ever, ever getting sick and tired of praising God and his glory.

You might have been here this morning, be like, Oh my gosh, when's when's praise and worship gonna be up?

I want to sit down.

Like that could have been your heart here this morning.

I want to tell you that seraphim in heaven are crying holy, holy, holy unto God.

And it says the pillars in the throne room are shaking at the sound of their voice, and they are doing this day and night.

They're not stopping, they're not saying, okay, yep, yep, okay, we've done this for about 50,000 years.

Okay, this is good.

We'll we'll stop.

No, they are they will go and go and go.

Why?

Because God in his glory is infinitely incredible.

There is no end to God in his glory, and this is something that our human minds actually can't fully understand.

We can't wrap our heads around eternal things because we are finite creatures.

It means we have a start and we have an end.

Obviously, you and I are going to go into eternity, but our minds at this stage, our human minds are limited by our human understanding.

So when we start to think about God's glory, that it's endless, that it actually does not have an end, it's hard for us to think about that.

Like we can't wrap our minds around that.

The fact that the universe does not have an end to it, right?

God's glory is not confined to a certain box or a certain space.

It's like, how does that actually make sense?

I want to tell you this: you will never ever ever fully understand God.

Because He is greater, He is higher, He is more glory, He's more majestic, He is marvelous in all of His ways.

There is no like, okay, God, on the scale of one to a hundred, you are at 100.

Well, what's 101?

What's 200?

What's 300?

I want to tell you, God busts every single barrier you would ever try to put him in.

You can't put him in a box, you can't restrict him, you can't limit him.

He is greater, he is higher, he is better.

The best thing that you could ever ever imagine times that by a billion, then get that figure, times that by another billion and a zillion and a gazillion, and you come up with a number and you times it and times it and times it because his glory is endless.

See, this is the thing with God.

We get sold a lie, and the lie is this that God is boring.

I would rather be watching the warriors lose, or I would be rather rather be watching my sports team, or I would rather be uh making money, or I'd rather be in Disneyland doing something else.

But if I'm here in church, it's like, oh man, like mom made me come today.

I don't want to be here.

Like, I've got better things to do.

I'm gonna tell you, there is nothing better than being in the presence of God.

And this isn't something I'm making up just to try hype you up and say, you know, God is good all the time, brother, all the time, God is good.

No, I'm not saying it like that this morning, I'm saying it because there is a thing called religion, and it's really prevalent on our island, where people will say, Oh, yep, God is good all the time, all the time, brother, God is good.

Meanwhile, they're probably hungover because they're drinking the night before, right?

People can be up the front in churches reading the very scriptures that say if you if you live a life of drunkenness, you will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And read these very same scriptures while living a double life of hypocrisy, it's really common.

And you can probably think of situations or scenarios where you've seen people that say they are one thing and they live another thing.

But I'll tell you this: if we have lost connection with the creator of the heavens and the earth, we had we have entered something called religion.

Where it's about doing the works, it's about ticking the boxes, it's about coming to church to look good.

We spend more time getting dressed up than we do preparing our hearts.

We're more concerned about what others would think about us than what God thinks about us.

We're more concerned about what's for lunch than what God has for me today in the house of God.

And what we do, we sell ourselves short and we enter a thing called religion, where it's all about the external things, but the heart is dry and cold and there is no life.

But if you encounter the living God and have a relationship, a true, authentic, real relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, where he enters your heart, you can invite him in, and the power of the Holy Spirit begins to flood your life, and he opens your eyes to see him in his glory.

I'll tell you, he will satisfy every single longing in your life.

Every desire in your heart will be fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Do I get an amen in God's house?

I want to ask us this question this morning.

How much do we value Jesus?

Like, how much do we actually value Jesus?

What price would we pay to get Jesus Christ?

Because how much we value something is most often represented by what we are willing to give up to get that thing.

Like if you really value a Toyota Hilux at Pickering Motors, right, or one of those flash jeeps outside Rara cars, right?

If you really value that, you'll give up your hard-earned money to get that thing.

Right?

You are you are exchanging, you could have spent that money on anything else, you could have spent it on like a thousand palace burgers, right?

You could have spent it on all sorts of things, but you chose because you valued that product, you chose to give up your resources to gain that thing.

Maybe you're a sports fan and you had a great desire to go and watch your sports team overseas play in the final or the semifinal, whatever, right?

You would give up your resources, you'll give up your time, you'll give up your leave at work to travel, you'll probably give up seeing your family for the next five days so you can go and see those guys in the flesh.

Right?

You are exchanging something because you value that thing.

I don't know too many people that would fly over to like Eden Park and watch the Warriors game if they hated the Warriors.

You'd be like, why are you going?

No one's making you do this.

You're only gonna do that if you value that team.

Right?

You can travel around the world, you can travel to Greece, go to Italy, it costs you like 30 grand for this like major holiday, and you get to live it up over there.

It's gonna last you two weeks, it's gonna be amazing.

All right, you would do that if you valued that trip and you valued that memory, you'd be willing to give up your resources to get that thing.

This is the parable that Jesus is bringing to us in Matthew chapter 13, verse 44.

Matthew 13:44

When a man discovers the treasure hidden in the field, you know what he does?

When he finds the treasure, he covers it back up because in biblical times, what would happen?

They didn't have banks that were as secure as we have today.

So you can put your savings in BCI and you can trust it's gonna be all good without someone like, oh yeah, I'll just help myself to this.

I need lunch today, you know?

Tap into that guy's 50 grand.

No, no, like the the bank is secure, okay.

But back back in biblical times, they didn't have those same luxuries.

Okay, so what often would happen is you get people that would bury their treasures, they would bury their wealth in their land.

And if that people would die and they'll move on without telling uh anybody about their treasure.

And so if you discovered treasure in your land or you bought a piece of land and it had treasure in it, it belonged to you because you were the owner of that land.

That's how it worked in the times.

So this man he's in a field and he discovers this treasure.

And what he does, he covers the treasure and he goes away.

And he says, I am going to sell everything I have so that I can get enough finance to go and buy the entire field that I might get that treasure that's hidden in the field.

This is the amazing thing.

Is that he did this with joy.

He did this with joy, that's what the scripture says.

He did this with joy.

Why did he do this with joy?

Because the value of the treasure in the field was so much better than everything that he owned.

So when he found that treasure, he was like, Oh my gosh, I have found all of this treasure.

Look what I have in my ragtag house.

I got nothing.

I'm selling everything I possibly can.

I'm flipping out the couch that's got holes in it, so I can buy, I might find like a couple things, so I can sell everything that I might get enough finances to get that field to gain the treasure.

And the Bible says this, he did it with joy.

This is the kingdom of God that it is like a treasure hidden in the field.

That you and I would sell everything in our life that we might gain the treasure.

Jesus is the prize.

I've been coming around to my house, having cups of tea, and uh had a couple meetings with them, and uh we've been discussing the truth of the word of God, and it's been good.

Have some uh interesting conversations to say the least.

And uh maybe another time we can get into that.

But uh one of the things the guy said to me said this when you preach to people about the gospel and you share Jesus to them, because they don't believe Jesus is God, okay.

It's uh it's I'll I'll give I'll give you a long story short, it's a cult.

It's nice and simple.

Cut all the all the stuff out, it's uh it's a false religion, right?

But he's telling me, he says, What when you preach the gospel to someone, do you how do you give them back like you know, how do you do you preach the kingdom?

And then I said to him, because uh he was bringing up uh uh Matthew chapter 24 verse 14.

Matthew 24:14

Talks about and the end, right?

The the gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all nations.

And then have you got that up there, Tudor?

This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

So he's saying, Look, you guys aren't preaching the kingdom.

And then I said, Look, okay, this is my response to you for that.

How do you get access to the kingdom?

You cannot possibly get access to the kingdom outside of Christ Jesus.

He is the way, he is the truth, and he is the life.

No man can come to the Father but through Jesus Christ the Son.

And so I said, You can't jump a fence and get into God's kingdom without going through Christ.

Citizenship in Jesus' kingdom is only through the king, Christ Jesus.

So you can preach the kingdom, but I want to tell you this: you need to be preaching the king of the kingdom.

This isn't the kingdom of Tonga, this isn't the kingdom of England, right?

This is the kingdom of God that is eternal, and there is only one way into his kingdom, and that's through Jesus Christ.

So when we talk about the kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in the field, or the kingdom of heaven, those two terms are used interchangeably throughout the Gospels.

When the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, Jesus Christ is the treasure, he is the prize, he is the king of his kingdom.

There is no one better, there is no one higher, there is no one greater than the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, our triune God, three in one, one being three persons.

This is the gospel is that Jesus Christ gave his life.

Life and when we give our hearts and surrender and we sell everything that we have, we gain the treasure that is so much better.

I want to tell you this coming to Jesus will never ever ever be a bad deal.

Marriages busted, kids hate me, teeth falling out.

But I really gotta give all that stuff up to come to Jesus, huh?

I want to tell you that is not a bad deal, buddy.

It's not a bad deal.

When you and I give up everything that we have to come to Jesus, he is so much better.

It doesn't matter if you are a millionaire and you live the highest of the highs in this world, Jesus Christ is better.

Because your life will end here on earth, and you will stand before God one day, and our natural wealth, all the things that we acquire are gonna mean nothing when we stand before God, and we will stand before Him and He will judge our life.

And if our heart is not right with Him, I want to tell you it will lead to one thing, or many things, but one main thing will be absolute regret, as you will look back and be like, What did I do?

This is the single greatest appointment you'll ever have is the appointment of the judgment seat of Christ.

When you and I stand before God one day, it does not matter about anything else.

But what will matter is your heart's condition before Him.

And you can say, Oh yeah, it's all lies, you know, yeah, I don't believe that.

Well, you can say that all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that it's coming.

You can live in denial, you can say, Oh, yep, I choose not to believe in that.

I can choose not to believe in the government, doesn't mean that I don't have to pay taxes.

No, I don't believe in the government.

I don't believe in prison.

What?

Prison.

I can break laws, I can do what I want.

I don't believe in that stuff.

Yeah, as soon as I break those laws, the police will pull me over and they'll chuck me into prison.

It doesn't matter if I don't believe in it, if I just try to live in denial.

None of that matters.

It doesn't change the reality that there is a prison and that there are laws and there is a government.

And if I break those things, I will end up in prison.

So it's the same thing.

If you you can say, oh, you know, I don't believe in God, it doesn't negate the fact that you are a sinner in need of a savior, and without the blood of Jesus Christ, there is a consequence and a wage for your sin, which is death.

And we need Jesus Christ.

We need Jesus, each and every one of us.

I am in total, absolute, desperate need of Jesus Christ, just as much as the mass murderer, just as much as the abuser, just as much as the thief.

It does not matter.

We are all in desperate need of the blood of Jesus Christ to wash us and cleanse us of our sin.

We need Jesus Christ.

So when we read this parable, there are two things.

Number one, the man was willing to sell everything, and he did this with joy.

He sold his entire life so that he would get the treasure because the worth of the treasure was so much better than everything that he owned.

Jesus Christ is better, he is the prize, he is the highest value.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Taste and see.

You might be here this morning, but like I don't even believe this God's stuff on to tell you this this morning.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

He will fulfill your desires, he'll fulfill your longings, the pains and the hurt in your heart, he will heal the stresses and the anxieties, he will wipe the shame and the guilt, he cleanses the burdens, he lifts.

He is so good.

Eternally good, eternally good.

Praise God.

Praise God.

But I want to tell you this.

As I've been sharing that, God is infinitely greater and better than what we have experienced.

If his glory is endless, what does that mean?

It means that each and every one of you have an option or an opportunity to know Jesus Christ in a greater way.

We don't come to a point, we'll be like, oh look, I've been serving God for 15 years.

I think I know everything in God.

I'm pretty sure I've arrived here.

I can just take it easy.

It's all good.

But like, with all due respect, you and I have not even scraped the very surface of God's glory.

Like, there is just so much more.

There's always going to be more in Jesus.

So the fact that the idea that a Christian should be like, you know, plateauing, all right, or taking it easy.

All right, I did the hard yards 20 years ago.

Now I'm pretty good.

I'm gonna take it easy.

I'm gonna tell you, there is more for you in God.

There's more glory, there's more wonder, there's more majesty, he is higher, he is better.

There's not gonna come to a point and be like, ah, I've arrived, right?

The very end level of God.

No, it's not how it works.

There's always going to be more.

And the exciting thing is you and I are on this endless of God and his majesty, and he can show you himself in greater, deeper levels that we have the opportunity to go after God in such a way that you and I get to experience his glory like men and women experienced in the word of God.

Signs, wonders, miracles, healings, glory, power.

The creator of the heavens and the earth dwelling inside of us, the Holy Spirit manifesting himself in his church.

I'm gonna say, I want to tell you this this morning that there is so much more in God.

That we should not say that we've arrived or just like the thought that a Christian should take it easy is kind of like an oxymoron.

It shouldn't happen.

Like, oh yeah, okay, I am good.

No, you're not good because there's more in God, right?

I know that you're justified, you're washed, you're cleansed, you're on this journey of sanctification, praise God.

But I want to tell you this there's more, there's more in Him, there's more beauty to discover, there's more majesty.

Like in my relationship with Liddy, we are humans, we have finite majesty.

Okay.

I mean, like, Liddy can search me day and night.

She's gonna come to the end of like coolness pretty quick.

Right?

Whatever you want to call it, like you know, awesomeness, coolness, fill in the blank, right?

But I'm not like the eternal man, neither are you.

We're not like she's not gonna search my heart and be like, oh babe, there's just so much the depths of your heart.

I can just keep on going forever and just find more and more treats.

That like the deeper I dig, the better it gets.

Like the minds of Perth, we just keep digging, and there's more, there's more, there's more.

That's not how it works, okay?

She's gonna come to the end of my stuff pretty fast, right?

Because I'm just a guy, right?

You you and I we're just humans, right?

But God in this relationship, you will never, ever, ever, ever, ever get to the depths of his glory where he comes to an end.

There's more beauty.

The diamonds get better the deeper you go, right?

You can keep on digging and keep on finding, you can keep on tasting, keep on seeing.

Like I talked about this two weeks ago.

Like, you can only eat so much wet cheeseburgers before you feel sick.

You can only eat so much chocolate before you just feel like, oh my gosh, I'm sugared out.

Like, what was I doing?

You can go to Cafe Arique and get their sticky date dessert.

Beautiful.

But you have two, three, four of those?

Nah, man, you're gonna be like, what was I thinking?

Right, really quick, you're gonna get to the end of that and you're gonna feel sick.

You can earn so much money.

Why do we have celebrities that are at the highest of the highs?

Everybody loves them, everyone wants to meet them, everybody follows them on social media, they're taking pictures of them, the hype is all around them, they can buy whatever they want with the wealth that they have.

Yet they are depressed, some of them.

And some of them take their own lives, overdose.

Why?

Because they find out pretty quick that the material things of this earth do not satisfy the longings of the heart, and they can get all of this stuff and acquire all of this wealth, and they realize, oh my gosh, like what would the what's the point of this?

It's just all vain and empty.

Why?

Because I want to tell you this the things of this earth will not satisfy the longings of your heart because you were made for Jesus Christ.

He will satisfy the things that he can only satisfy.

And we are all in this race in the West where it's like, if I can only just get that house, then I'll be happy.

Or if I can just build this business, or if I can just get this job promotion, if I can get this dollar figure in my account, then I want to tell you this: I will be satisfied.

Let me tell you, you will not be satisfied because you'll want the next thing, and the next thing after that, and you want more money and more material success, and it's just the next thing after try to fill this longing in our hearts that only Christ can fulfill.

Satisfaction in life will only be found in Jesus Christ.

Philippians chapter 3, verse 8 says this.

Philippians 3:8

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.

Everybody say rubbish, in order that I might gain Christ and be found in him.

Not having righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

This is what Paul is saying.

He says, All of my success and then the natural, all of it is rubbish before God.

He says this just prior to these verses, he talks about his righteousness that he attained from the law.

He was a Hebrew, he followed the law.

He was like squeaky clean when it came to the law, but his heart was a million miles away from God.

Okay, he was saying, I was doing everything that looked good on the outside, but it was all rubbish compared to the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

What Paul is trying to stress to us is this the things of this earth, the natural things, your success, your righteousness, all the good stuff outside of Jesus Christ is rubbish compared to the infinite value of being with Jesus.

This is the word of God.

No, that word rubbish in the Greek comes from this word, it's called scubalon.

Scubalon.

And this word is used once in the entire Bible.

Once.

The nice word, all right?

They make it a little bit more palatable.

So we use words like rubbish, some might use words like dung.

Okay, but scublon in the Greek means this.

And forgive me for being crude, but it means feces.

It actually means excrement, like the scientific word for that stuff, right?

That's what he's saying.

That the things of this natural I count as feces compared to knowing God.

It's like this is what Paul's saying.

Offer me two boxes.

In one box, I've got all of the latest trucks and cars and gold and jewels and houses and land and material success and prestige and righteousness.

I try to do outside of God.

All of that is in one box, and then in another box here is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he's been offered two boxes.

And it's like someone saying, You can have this box or you can have that box.

Choose what one you want to have.

You can have it entirely.

And he's saying, Okay, the first box with all of the natural wealth and all of the prestige and everything in this world, okay.

Offer me that or offer me Jesus.

The first one I compare or I value as feces compared to the box of receiving Jesus Christ, my Lord.

That is how much better and higher and greater Jesus Christ is than anything else in the earth.

That everything else is compared to like animal poo on the side of the road.

That's what he is saying, compared to knowing Jesus Christ.

Like this is like, whoa, like that's pretty strong language.

That's what Paul was trying to stress.

The total difference between the things of this world and serving the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the prize, he is so much better, so much greater, so much higher.

Why did Paul know this?

It's because Paul encountered the living God.

He didn't encounter some empty, dead religion.

No, he encountered the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus when heaven was open and the Lord revealed himself.

And Paul saw Jesus Christ, then his eyes were blind.

Goes through this process of restoration.

And from that moment on, his life was forever changed.

And he became one of the greatest apostles we have had in the faith.

He wrote over half the New Testament.

Why?

One encounter with Jesus Christ changed his life forever, shifted his perspective, his mindset fore and ever and ever.

I want to tell you when God comes into your life, he fulfills your longings.

Psalm chapter 84, verse 10 for a bet uh sorry, for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

Psalms 84:10

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.

The sons of Korah, they write this scripture, and they are saying, One day in God's presence, in his house, in his courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

Take me to Disneyland, take me to Greece, take me to Rome.

One day.

This is the reason for my existence.

This is it right here.

Like, take me to Disneyland, take me on those rides, it ain't gonna do it.

This is my reason for my being right here in God's presence.

That's what the sons of Korah are writing.

You can take me to see the most marvelous, most grand, most amazing sights.

Take me to see the seven wonders of the world.

Take me to experience the most exotic places that this world has to offer.

Do that for a thousand days, it would not even be better than one day in God's presence.

Because God's presence is the greatest.

And you might have been sold alive this morning where it's just like, yeah, it's all empty, man.

I come to church.

I don't feel nothing like that.

I'd rather go do stuff on my own.

You've been sold short.

Because when you push into God's presence, he satisfies in a way unlike anything else.

He is the treasure hidden in the field.

Do I get an amen?

Acts chapter 17, verse 28 says this for in him we live and move and have our being.

Acts 17:28

I want to say this this morning.

Jesus Christ is not a side gig, he is not an add-on.

Some of us come to Jesus.

So this is a real Western mindset is that we come to Jesus for what he can add to us.

We've got a good job, we've got good good wealth, right?

Marriage is a bit shaky, you know.

So we come to God, and you know, I've got a bit of anxiety, a bit of mental health issues.

So I come to God, and you know, I would like God to deal with that so that I can enjoy my life better.

That's a lie.

Jesus Christ does not come to do a little extension on your already made house, he comes to bowl your house down, redo the foundation, and build something that is eternal, right?

Jesus Christ is not a side grip uh not a side gig, he's not a side quest, he's not something we come to on a Sunday morning to tick the box and then go do whatever the heck we want to do during the week.

No, he is a God that we give everything, we sell all of our life's worth, right?

That we might get enough finance and we exchange it to get the treasure hidden in the field.

This is the Lord that we serve.

He's not an add-on.

You can't add Jesus to your life.

He comes to destroy your life, kill your life, and start a new one, and you're a new creation of Christ Jesus.

The old man is gone and the new man is come.

He doesn't level you up, he doesn't add to you, he doesn't bulk you up, he doesn't give you more like abilities and powers.

No, he kills the old man, the old Zach dies with Christ Jesus, is crucified on that cross with the Lord Jesus Christ, and a new man comes in Christ Jesus.

This is the gospel.

So Jesus Christ is our absolute everything.

Absolute everything.

He is the prize.

We don't use him for other things.

We don't, like I mentioned before, jump on him like a trampoline to bounce to something higher or greater that we perceive to be better.

No, he is the final product, he is the reward, he is the prize.

It's Jesus Christ.

It's not what he gives us, it's not the blessings, it's not the inheritance that we get.

Those things are great, and we praise God and we are extremely thankful and grateful for those things.

But I want to tell you it's the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

He is the prize.

I'm gonna finish by sharing this one scripture, Matthew chapter 16, verse 26.

Matthew 16:26

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

The New Living Translation ends by saying this is anything worth more than your soul?

I want to tell you this.

It doesn't matter if you gain the entire world.

If you forfeit your soul, it's all pointless.

Your soul is of so much greater value, so much greater success, so much more importance.

Nothing is worth more than your soul and the condition of your heart before the Lord Jesus Christ.

No, the funny thing is this is you and I sometimes we exchange our soul, not you and I in this church, but I'll tell you, Christians can often exchange their own soul for material success that is only a utter smidge of the value of the world.

Like this is what Christ is saying.

What good is a man if he gains the entire world?

Like everything in the world.

Like you can have Elon Musk, who's the richest man on the face of the planet.

His stuff is nothing compared to the wealth of the entire world.

Like his is only just a fraction.

Like, let's just take an example.

I ran some stats, I did some math for us this morning.

If you were to live in the Cook Islands and have a whopping, thriving, successful business, and your net worth was about 200 million New Zealand dollars, you'd probably very easily be the richest man in the Cook Islands or woman.

Right?

You would travel, you probably have a private jet, you can travel around the world, you'd have houses throughout the island, the nicest houses on the island.

Imagine this, right?

You've got houses in like Dubai, you've got a nice place in the Mediterranean, you've got places in New Zealand, Australia, right?

You travel private, you have the highest of the highest life, basically, when you're at that level of wealth.

You live the life, and everyone around you wants to be you.

So if I could just be that guy or that girl, right?

Everyone's like, you are the man or the woman, right?

When you walk, everyone's like, there's the one, there's the one.

Private jail, yeah.

He wrote that.

So everyone's like, you know, you you're a right, and you've got this huge net worth here in the Cook Islands.

If you had 200 New Zealand, 200 million New Zealand dollars, your net worth would be this figure.

0.00002% of the entire world's personal wealth.

0.00002%.

And like that that for a lot of people, that zero point zero zero zero zero two percent would be the absolute dream.

Like, oh my gosh, if I had that, I would shut the door, mate.

We're done.

I've arrived.

And it's like not even like close to even a smidge close to being at one percent of the world.

And what Jesus is saying is what good is it if you gain 100% of the whole world, yet forfeit your own soul because nothing is worth more than your soul.

I want to tell you this if you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, you have found the treasure hidden in the field that is infinitely more value than any of the wealth in this world.

You could be the richest of the rich, you could have everything in this world, but if you don't have Jesus, you are bankrupt and empty spiritually before God.

And the poorest of the poor, the one that's just got such ragtag shack of a place, if they have Jesus, they are richer.

Because when they die, they'll stand before God and inherit an eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's not about the things of this world.

And I want to encourage us this morning, we need to shift our hearts, our minds need to understand this.

If you can get this one thing in your mind this morning, Jesus Christ is the prize, He is the reward.

There is nothing that will satisfy you outside of Jesus.

You can connect with us on Instagram or Facebook at Celebration Rara or visit our website celebration.com.

Until next time.