Sermon Tone Analysis

IS WHAT YOU GOT WORTH A LOT?

 

Matt 13:44-46

 

44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:

46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

KJV

 

 

Our topic this morning is what you got worth a lot?

Is what you got worth a lot or is it not that hot?

I suggest to you today that everyone lives for a reason.

There is an ultimate goal a treasure that we all search for.

If we have secured it we cherish it.

It we have not secured it we strive to acquire it.

If you haven’t found it is what you are searching worth it?

Are you wasting your time for sometime that cannot satisfy?

*13:44** .*

Treasures were often buried for safekeeping.

The most likely circumstance envisioned here is that of a peasant who, while working the field of a wealthy landowner, found the treasure but covered it again lest the landowner claim it for himself.

The peasant then invested all his own resources into that field to procure the treasure.

Stories of finding lost treasures naturally circulated among the poor; Jesus uses the story line to stir his hearers to seek for a treasure far greater than any on earth.

We are not to imagine that the treasure here mentioned, and to which the Gospel salvation is likened, means a pot or chest of money hidden in the field, but rather a gold or silver mine, which he who found out could not get at, or work, without turning up the field, and for this purpose he bought it.

The POINT of the parable lies in his "earnestness," his anxiety, his care, and his actually obtaining it.

The gospel is more valuable than such a treasure, Ps 19:10; Prov 3:13-15.

It is hidden from most people.

When a person sees it and hears it, it is his duty to sacrifice all that hinders his obtaining it, and to seek it with the earnestness with which other people seek for gold.

The parable suggest the easy accessibility of the treasure.

In a vision given me at Battle Creek, Michigan, October 25, 1861, I was shown this earth, dark and gloomy.

Said the angel, "Look carefully!"

Then I was shown the people upon the earth.

Some were surrounded by angels of God, others were in total darkness, surrounded by evil angels.

I saw an arm reached down from heaven, holding a golden scepter.

On the top of the scepter was a crown, studded with diamonds.

Every diamond emitted light, bright, clear, and beautiful.

Inscribed upon the crown were these words: "All who win me are happy, and shall have everlasting life."

{CET 161.1}

Below this crown was another scepter, and upon this also was placed a crown, in the center of which were jewels, gold, and silver, reflecting some light.

The inscription upon the crown was: "Earthly treasure.

Riches is power.

All who win me have honor and fame."

I saw a vast multitude rushing forward to obtain this crown.

They were clamorous.

Some in their eagerness seemed bereft of reason.

They would thrust one another, crowding back those who were weaker than they, and trampling upon those who in their haste fell.

Many eagerly seized hold of the treasures within the crown, and held them fast.

The heads of some were as white as silver, and their faces were furrowed with care and anxiety.

Their own relatives, bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh, they regarded not; but, as appealing looks were turned to them, they held their treasures more firmly, as though fearful that in an unguarded moment they should lose a little, or be induced to divide with them.

Their eager eyes would often fasten upon the earthly crown, and count and recount its treasures.

{CET 161.2}

161

 

 

162

 

 

     Images of want and wretchedness appeared in that multitude, and looked wishfully at the treasures there, and turned hopelessly away as the stronger overpowered and drove back the weaker.

Yet they could not give it up thus, but with a multitude of deformed, sickly, and aged, they sought to press their way to the earthly crown.

Some died in seeking to reach it.

Others fell just in the act of taking hold of it.

Many had but just laid hold of it when they fell.

Dead bodies strewed the ground, yet on rushed the multitude, trampling over the fallen and dead bodies of their companions.

Everyone who reached the crown possessed a share in it, and was loudly applauded by an interested company standing around it.

{CET 162.1}

A large company of evil angels were very busy.

Satan was in the midst of them, and all looked with the most exulting satisfaction upon the company struggling for the crown.

He seemed to throw a peculiar charm upon those who eagerly sought it.

{CET 162.2}

Many who sought this earthly crown were professed Christians.

Some of them seemed to have a little light.

They would look wishfully upon the heavenly crown, and would often seem charmed with its beauty, yet they had no true sense of its value and glory.

While with one hand they were reaching forth languidly for the heavenly, with the other they reached eagerly for the earthly, determined to possess that; and in their earnest pursuit for the earthly, they lost sight of the heavenly.

They were left in darkness, yet were anxiously groping about to secure the earthly crown.

{CET 162.3}

 

8 percent of the world’s population own’s 1~/3 of its wealth.

Ill.

How to catch a monkey \\ Native hunters in the jungles of Africa have a clever \\ way of trapping monkeys.

\\ They slice a coconut in two, hollow it out, and in one half of the shell cut a hole just big enough for a monkey’s hand to pass through.

Then they place an orange in the other coconut half before fastening together the two halves of the coconut shell.

Finally, they secure the coconut to a tree with a rope, retreat into the jungle, and wait.

\\ Sooner or later, an unsuspecting monkey swings by, smells the delicious orange, and discovers its location inside the coconut.

The monkey then slips his hand through the small hole, grasp the orange, and tries to pull it through the hole.

Of course, the orange won’t come out; it’s too big for the hole.

To no avail the persistent monkey continues to pull and pull, never realizing the danger he is in.

\\ While the monkey struggles with the orange, the hunters simply stroll in and capture the monkey by throwing a net over him.

As long as the monkey keeps his fist wrapped around the orange, the monkey is trapped.

\\ It’s too bad-the poor monkey could save its own life if it would let go of the orange.

It rarely occurs to a monkey, however, that it can’t have both the orange and its freedom.

That delicious orange becomes a deadly trap.

\\ The world sets traps for you that are not unlike the monkey trap.

You hear constantly that if you just have enough money, enough stuff, enough power, enough prestige-then you’ll be happy.

Under that illusion people spend their whole lives thinking you must have it all.

\\ The call of Christianity is unlike that of the world.

The world focus’ on what you and get out of life.

The fly lands on the flypaper and says, “My flypaper,” while the flypaper says, “My fly.

(Devil)

 

Luke 21:34-36

 

34 "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.

35 For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.

36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."

NKJV

 

What you got worth a lot?

Or if you don’t have it what are you spending time looking for?

Who are you hanging with trying to get it?

What you’re looking for I the one you’re looking for.

What you’re searching for cause you don’t have to search no more.

On your knees joy and peace and happiness.

What you’re looking I’m the One you’re looking for

 

 

Matt 6:20-21

 

20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: