Scripture: Matthew 13:44-46
A couple of months ago, I came with Lisa to this church for an in-person interview. I had already had an interview over Zoom, of course—but this was finally an opportunity to meet in person. I also had a chance to meet with Kyle and Rebecca. And let me tell you: the hiring committee couldn’t have been friendlier and more hospitable. I walked into the classroom where the interview was taking place, and they had a name card at each of the seats, including one for yours truly… And by the way, on a related note, I’m a huge fan of these name tags that y’all wear. I love that this church from the beginning has the tradition of wearing name tags…
Anyway, they had a name card for me at my seat: Rev. Brent White…
But they actually had two name cards. You see, next to that first card that had my name on it was another name card… with these words on it… “Mad Dog.”
Mad Dog…
I was dumbfounded… That was a nickname I earned—proudly—for my toughness and tenacity back in Rec League football when I was in 7th grade…
But it’s not a widely known fact about me today! No one’s called me “Mad Dog” in 41 years!
So imagine my surprise walking into that classroom over there, a couple of months ago, and seeing that nickname on my name card!
I was genuinely confused. I’m like, “How did you know about that?”
Scott Murray said, “We have people in the C.I.A.”
I wasn’t a hundred percent sure that he was joking! And then I remembered, like… years ago… I shared an anecdote about this nickname in a sermon, which of course was posted online. But still… It was years ago… Why would someone watch a sermon from so long ago?
And then it became clear over the course of our conversation that—holy cow—these people—on this committee, at least—know a lot about me! For better or worse! And they still wanted me to be their pastor!
I am grateful to God that they did, believe me!
But I can’t assume the rest of you know me nearly so well. So, I want to take my first two Sundays here to introduce myself… the very best way I know how: by preaching on two passages of scripture that have become theme verses for my life over the past eight or nine years… These scriptures have guided my life and ministry since about 2016 or ’17.
So, as I begin my ministry with y’all, what I am going to say in these first two sermons is what I believe you most urgently need to know… about me, at least.
The first of my “theme verses” is Matthew 13:44-46, which we just read: “The kingdom of heaven is like 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. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” And next week we’ll look at my second “theme” scripture passage, Acts 20:26-27: “Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”
But let’s begin by talking about these two short parables in Matthew 13:44 to 46. In the first parable we have a farmer. He doesn’t own the land; he’s farming land that belongs to someone else. He’s not a rich man by any stretch. Yet he stumbles upon great treasure… Apparently the owner of the land doesn’t even know it’s there! But this man finds it, and he knows that, if only he could acquire it, it would be worth everything to him. It would change his life forever. So he sells all of his possessions and buys it. It’s worth everything he has!
In the second parable we have a very different kind of person, a “man of means”—a wealthy merchant who makes a living trading in fine pearls. And in the course of doing his job—searching for fine pearls—he finds the most precious pearl he had ever seen. So much so that, like the farmer in the first parable, he gives everything he has in order to acquire this one perfect pearl. Even for a wealthy man, this treasure is beyond his wildest hopes and dreams… It’s worth everything he has.
So… one obvious point Jesus is making is that it doesn’t matter who we are or what we possess in this life—how much or how little… how rich or how poor… the kingdom of heaven—at least for those who want to be part of it—is like that treasure, Jesus says.
In other words, being a part of this kingdom, being a subject of this particular king, Jesus, being a child of God through faith in his Son Jesus feels the same way that the farmer or the pearl merchant felt… or at least it’s supposed to!
In Christ we have found our greatest treasure. He and the things that belong to his kingdom are worth literally everything to us… or at least they should be!
And best of all… and here’s the key point I want to make…
Best of all, being a part of this kingdom through faith in Christ brings joy. The key words are found in verse 44: “then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has.”
The two most important things that I can say to you as your pastor, at the beginning of this new chapter in our church’s ministry here, are these: I want every single one of you to find this treasure for yourself. And I want every single one of you to know this joy for yourself. And while we’re at it, I want your friends, neighbors, family members, coworkers, and classmates to find this treasure in Christ, and to know this joy, for themselves.
So my first, most urgent questions for you are these: Have you found this treasure? Do you know this joy… and by joy I mean a kind of lasting happiness that doesn’t depend on mere circumstances… It goes beyond what you happen to be experiencing in your life… This joy is only available through a personal relationship with Christ?
I do know this joy… I have found this treasure…
And I want to tell you about how I found it…
I was 13 years old. I was not yet a believer in Jesus; I wasn’t yet saved. And I knew I wasn’t saved, in part, because a friend down the street named Wes told me so. Wes was a Baptist kid like me, except unlike me he wasn’t a Southern Baptist. Wes was “Independent Baptist”—the kind of Baptist for whom Southern Baptists were not quite Baptist enough. But Wes wasn’t wrong: I wasn’t saved. So I’m actually grateful to God for Wes and his witness. He knew me well enough to know that I didn’t know Jesus. I only wish, in retrospect—in addition to warning me about going to hell—Wes would have also talked to me more about how to avoid hell… that is, how to be saved.
Because I didn’t understand that at all!
What I understood—from my own churchgoing experience—was that “being saved” apparently meant “walking down an aisle” on Sunday morning, at the pastor’s invitation, and praying a “sinner’s prayer.” I was Baptist, remember… No confirmation class for us! And it also often meant—at least for many people—crying in public…
Because when I saw people walk down that aisle, I noticed they often did so in tears… Tears of joy, I’m sure, but I wanted no part of that! Good grief! I had a crush on Betty Jean Beck at the time. If I started crying in church she would be there to see me do it… I would not be able to live that down! I would not be caught dead crying in front of Betty Jean! No way!
So to say the least, I had a lot to learn about being saved…
My family, meanwhile, was no help… My parents were, at that time, the most nominal of Christians… Before they died, each of them, praise God, was either converted to Christ or at least came back to the Christian faith of their childhood…
But when I was 13, they couldn’t tell me how to be saved. I was confused about all of these things… And I was afraid… in general… deeply afraid.
For one thing, I was afraid of dying… Literally! I was afraid of dying in a nuclear war with the Soviet Union! And I know that may sound silly, but this was the early-’80s. This was the Cold War! The topic of nuclear war was all over the news, all over TV, all over movies, all over pop music… You name it!
There was a movie called WarGames, for instance, starring a young Matthew Broderick—not to mention a very cute Ally Sheedy—in which Broderick plays a computer hacker who hacks into Pentagon computers and almost accidentally launches World War III all by himself. I absorbed that scary message.
There was also that terrifying TV movie starring Jason Robards called The Day After… i.e., the day after the Russians launched a nuclear attack against America. Remember that? In the weeks leading up to the broadcast of that movie, teachers at my high school tried to raise our consciousness about nuclear war. “How do we feel about it?”
“Well, Ms. Venable, since you asked, I feel like I don’t want anuclear war, thank you very much!” But what am I supposed to do about it? I’m only 13 years old! Geez.
And this was the era of music videos on MTV. There was a hit song by Sting, called “Russians.” And the message of the song was, “If the Russians love their children, too, then surely they won’t attack the West with nuclear missiles… But they probably will!” And don’t forget “99 Luftballoons” by the German singer Nena. Or “It’s a Mistake” by Men at Work. So many songs about nuclear war! I absorbed these scary messages.
There was a video game—popular at the arcades—called “Missile Command.” The object of “Missile Command” was to defend these American cities from fast approaching nuclear missiles—to shoot them out of the sky before they landed and reduced your cities to rubble. And you always failed in the end. More and more missiles came until all of your cities were destroyed…Almost at the same time President Reagan was talking about building a real-life missile defense system—like the video game—nicknamed “Star Wars.” So I also absorbed those scary messages, too!
All that to say, I was fairly certain I was going to die in a nuclear war. And that scared me!
Even more, since I knew that I was not saved… that I was not in a right relationship with God… that I had not yet received God’s gift of eternal life in Christ… I knew that if or when the Soviets did launch a nuclear attack—and I died—I would be unprepared to stand before God in Final Judgment.
And that scared me most of all!
Finally, lying in bed one night, feeling afraid, I prayed my first real prayer—at least one that was not of the “Now I lay me down to sleep” variety. I prayed something like this: “Lord, I want to be a Christian—I want to be saved—but I don’t know how.” And by God’s grace, I’m sure, I summoned the courage to tell my parents the same thing. They didn’t know what to tell me at the time, but to their credit, they did call the youth pastor, and they signed me up to go on a winter youth retreat the next month or so in Black Mountain, North Carolina. That’s near Montreat, where Billy Graham lived. There, on that retreat in the mountains, I encountered Jesus in a powerful way…
There I experienced the love of Christ through some dear Christian brothers and sisters who were leading and chaperoning the retreat.
There I learned what Jesus did through his atoning death on the cross to save me from my sins.
There I received Christ as my Savior and Lord!
There I found a treasure that was worth everything to me.
There I found joy, surely the same joy that characterized the joy of the farmer and the pearl merchant!
And it’s no exaggeration to say that my life has never been the same since.
And what happened next?
I lived happily ever after. The End…
Just kidding… not even close!
Because there was something that I didn’t know… or at least I forgot somewhere along the way… for years, in my twenties and early thirties, I forgot… And I don’t want you to ever forget this…
I forgot that we Christians are never supposed to stop finding our joy in Christ alone… that we’re never supposed to stop finding our treasure in Christ alone… that we’re never supposed to stop treasuringChrist above anyone and anything else in the world.
Because here’s what I know for sure: Jesus Christ is the only path to lasting happiness and joy. That’s it! He’s it!
Only Jesus can make you happy in a lasting way!
And guess what? Literally every man, woman, and child living in this world wants one thing more than they want anything else: We want to be happy. And of course we want that happiness to last. We want the same thing that Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons wanted when they sang that famous anthem that we all know and love: [sing] “I want to rock and roll all night/ And party every day.” Maybe I should have had Kyle lead the choir in that song… No, no… It’s okay… Maybe next time…
But I’m only half-joking!
What I mean is… I too, alongside KISS, might also want to rock and roll all night and party every day if… if… by doing so I could find lasting happiness and joy. Wouldn’t you?
If that were truly the path to happiness and joy, bring it on!
I suppose hedonistic rock stars back in the ’70s thought that it was! Of course they were wrong. As we know from far too many famous examples, that lifestyle often ends in addiction, disease, and death.
But still, members of the band KISS wanted the same thing we all want: lasting happiness and joy.
And I’m here to tell you—our Lord is telling us in today’s scripture—that that kind of joy is only available through a personal relationship with Christ!
Our problem is—left to our own devices, apart from God’s grace—we look for joy in all the wrong places! I know that from experience.
When I graduated from college my first time around, in the early-’90s, I went to work in large system sales for AT&T. This was back when working at AT&T meant lifetime employment… or so we all thought… retirement at 65 with a gold watch. I know those days are long gone, but that was still the hope and expectation back then! Some of you remember! Anyway, my mentor at AT&T was an experienced account executive named Alec, who achieved financial success at a level I only dreamed about.
But Alec told me on more than one occasion, “I’m not in this for the money,” he said. “I really, really want recognition. That’s my ‘love language.’”
I was tempted to say, “Then how about signing your commission checks over to me, Alec? Because I’m in it for the money! That’s my ‘love language’! But I’ll be happy to give you a round of applause.”
But… Maybe I didn’t know myself very well back then—or maybe I was lying to myself back then… But now that I’m only a few years older today than Alec was back then… well, now I completely understand his point: At my sinful worst, I, too, crave “recognition.” I crave glory—not God’s glory but my own! I want to “make a name for myself.”
So like Alec, I know full well that temptation to be ambitious for worldly success… for recognition… for achievement.
Buy why does that seem so tempting? Lasting happiness isn’t found in recognition or popularity or fame. It isn’t found in wealth and worldly success… It isn’t found in physical fitness and beauty… It isn’t found in romantic relationships…. It isn’t found in our spouses or in our children… however amazing these gifts may be. It isn’t found in Death Valley on Saturday afternoons in the fall… It isn’t found in Willy B in Columbia… It isn’t found—as much as I hate to admit it—at the nation’s oldest and winningest college football stadium, Bobby Dodd.
In fact—and I hope I don’t offend you by saying this, on my very first Sunday…
Lasting happiness also isn’t found in or near Greenville, South Carolina!
Trust me, Lisa and I are delighted to be in the Greenville area. After all, Lisa and I were both born in big cities. We each grew up in the suburbs of big cities. People around here warn us, “Traffic is so terrible! Avoid Woodruff Road at all costs.” But you don’t get it. I love Woodruff Road! Because Woodruff Road means we have a Publix, a Trader Joe’s, and an Aldi just a few blocks from one another… nearby! I love that!
So I’m excited to be here in Greenville…
But listen: I’m not going to be happy, in a lasting way, because I’m now in Greenville.
And I’m not even going to be happy, in a lasting way, because I’m the pastor of Five Forks Methodist.
No… I’m only going to be happy in a lasting way to the extent that I continue to look for and find in Jesus Christ alone my life’s greatest treasure! Did you hear that?
I’m only going to be happy in a lasting way to the extent that I continue to look for and find in Jesus Christ alone my life’s greatest treasure!
But I still have a long way to go… I still need help saying no to the temptation to find it elsewhere… You do too! We are all still works in progress.
No… I’m not where I want to be… But as Paul himself says,
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 1
I press on toward the goal… I press on to win the prize… I press on for the glory of God… I press on for the upward call… I press on for the kingdom… I press on for the treasure… I press on for the sake of the lost… I press on that by all means I might save some 2… I press on to fight the good fight… I press on to finish the race 3… I press on to win an imperishable crown… I press on so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified4… I press on for the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge5…
I press on to know Jesus… I press on to know more of Jesus…
I press on to receive more of his love, more of his power, more of his Spirit…
I press on to hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant”…
I press on…
I press on for the sake of the fruit of the Spirit that the Lord is slowly but surely producing within me… one part of which, according to his Word, includes joy…
So I press on for joy…
I want joy… Don’t you? Give us more of it, Lord.
So let’s all press on… together. Amen?