For the past ten years, Carol and I have attended the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in February.  Whereas she goes primarily for her business, I go because it's Arizona in the winter.  A few years back she noted my boredom at walking around and gave me a task.  I was to find a strand of pearls for a customer, of a certain size, color and length.  I'm sure I looked at several thousand strands of pearls over two days, and in the end she did choose one of those I recommended.

          Pearls are created by oysters who sense something out of place in their shell.  So they coat this foreign object with "nacre," calcium carbonate.  Most pearls today are "cultured."  Humans assist in the pearl process by placing a tiny plastic ball inside the oyster.  The oyster coats the tiny hollow ball and forms a pearl.  Culturing makes pearls uniform and creates them more quickly.  Very few pearls are found in their natural state such as in Jesus' day when divers brought them up from the ocean floor.  Large, round natural pearls usually brought very high prices in His day.

          Jesus' parables in Matthew are stories about the Kingdom of Heaven.  The true Kingdom of Heaven, by the way, has nothing at all to do with the current movie by that name.  Ridley Scott's movie is a thinly disguised attack on the church for the Crusades.  The real Kingdom of Heaven is the Holy Christian Church.  It is created by God and open to all peoples of all times who trust Jesus as Lord.  The Holy Christian Church is invisible because it's made up of all true believers.  The visible church we see today is made up of all the members, visible congregations and denominations, and it contains both believers and also many unbelievers.

          Entrance into the Holy Christian Church, also called the Kingdom of Heaven, comes to all who hear the Gospel and believe in Jesus as their Savior.  The parables of Jesus tell what happens when people hear the Gospel.

          In our Gospel, Jesus tells two parables, and they are really one and the same.  The first was about a man who found a treasure in a field and sold everything to gain that treasure.  His second was about a merchant who found a precious pearl.  It was a "one-in-a-million" kind, and he was willing to exchange everything he had to get it.  So, like the man who wanted the treasure, the merchant made a decision that affected his entire life.  He sold all that he had, and then bought that pearl and made it the center of his whole life.

          In modern day terms, he "bet the pot."  He wagered everything he had, balancing his possessions with the joy that pearl would bring him.  These parables force us to consider what we would do.  What thing could be so wonderful that we would trade every worldly possession to buy it?

          Jesus' parables point out that being part of the Kingdom is so precious that a person must be willing to make it the center of life.  Nothing is more important than being in heaven, for it is there we live with God.  We get there only through faith in Christ.  Nothing compares with the glory God will show us there -- not family, not health, not treasures, not even life itself.  The Kingdom is greater than everything else.  Nothing compares with the Kingdom of Heaven.

          "Nothing?" you might ask?  Even family, our beloved children or dear spouse?  Yes, Jesus is saying nothing is greater, for anything that comes between us and God will destroy us.  What good is anything on this temporary earth, if we choose a life of permanent separation from God?

          Hence, the title of this message, "What Are You Willing to Do?"  What are we willing to do to be part of the Kingdom?  What are we willing to do to get what is priceless?  What are we willing to do to be with God?  What are we willing to leave behind to get it?  Can we give up our pride and our possessions?  Are we willing to break away from an unhealthy relationship?

          What are we willing to do, so that walls will be removed between us and God?  Or perhaps even the walls between us and someone we don't get along with?  What sin are we willing to give up?  What deadly pleasure are we willing to deny ourself?  What do we have that's bad for us?  What are we willing to do?

          Nothing of value comes easily.  Even pearls are created by troubles the oyster has.  When the oyster tries to lessen the irritation of that foreign object, it uses a chemical.  Humans often do that too.  We use all kinds of chemicals to try getting rid of our problems.  Or we fight against them, or try to chase them away.  Or we run away from the problem ourselves.  In rare situations, we may try making friends with the irritant.  People often do incredible things to get rid of a problem, including murder and suicide.

          Terrorists this past week tried once again to disrupt a major world city, but they failed.  God willing, they will always fail.  People bent on destroying others always destroy themselves, even if they live.  There are far worse fates than death.  Misguided men are willing to do great evil to attain their warped version of heaven.  And it's always the young and marginal who blow themselves up.  No old guys do it.  No high leaders do it.  Only the misguided few who believe they will receive the passions doled out by a false god called Allah.

          Passion for a false cause ought to make us consider our own passions.  Which of our passions are worth dying for and which are not?  What are we willing to do to protect what we think is valuable?

          In some ways the title of this message is misleading.  "What Are You Willing to Do?" implies there might be something we could do to gain the Kingdom.  But the Bible tells us that's not true.  It says you and I are by nature separated from God and the Kingdom.  Sin separates us from God and from each other.  Sin gives us no chance with God.  We can't DO anything to gain heaven.

          Only almighty God can fix this dilemma.  Only He has provided the way out.  Almighty God in His great love has declared that anyone, anywhere, of any race, no matter how sinful, can receive heaven through Christ.  Every man, woman or child who trusts Jesus is already in the Kingdom of Heaven.

          And I'm speaking about the real heaven, life forever with God, not some place of fleshly pleasures.  Just as there is only one true God, so there is only one real heaven - and one real hell.  Any other god or heaven are from the real Satan, the father of lies.  The real God is Triune, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons in one God.  Only He can give us heaven through His Son.

          There's a touching and true story I learned this week.  Last spring a dozen and a half local people went to India to teach Dalit women, the "Untouchables," how to improve their lives.  But a problem arose.  They were prepared for a few dozen, but they ended up with nearly two hundred women and children attending.  And the children's needs were incredible.  They were hungry and dirty.  So those women not teaching took charge, feeding them, washing them, rocking them, changing diapers, doing all the work while their mothers attended class.  At the end, the Dalit women were asked if they had questions.  "Yes," said one, "How can we become Christian?"  "Why do you ask?" said an American teacher, "for we have said nothing today about Jesus or Christianity."  The Dalit woman said, "Everywhere we go, our children are our problem.  No one but us cares for them.  But you and your women held our children, bathed them, fed them, and no one has ever done that for us.  It must be because of who you are.  How can we become Christian?"

          What are we willing to do to gain the treasure God wants to give us?  And what are we willing to do to share our hope with others?  What will we do for others that they might know the Lord?  Perhaps we can begin by thinking about heaven more often and how to get there.  C.S. Lewis wrote in his Mere Christianity, "It is because Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one."

          May God grant us all grace to be willing to forsake all this world may give us, that we might receive what no one can take from us.  Amen

Copyright © 2005 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.