Parables // Have You Found What You Are Looking For?

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Parables // Have You Found What You Are Looking For?

September 1, 2024 • Colossians 1:19, Luke 17:20–21, Matthew 13:31–33, Matthew 13:44, Revelation 19:16

Parables // Have You Found What You Are Looking For?

Matthew 13:44-46 (NIV)

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

1. Searching

Matthew 13:45 (NIV)

“the Kingdom of heaven is like merchant in search of fine pearls.”

2. Finding

Matthew 13:44,46 (NKJV)

“The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found…the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, when he had found one…”

Why is Jesus of such supreme Value?

- Because of who He is.

Revelation 19:16 (ESV)

“On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”

Revelation 1:5 (ESV)

“Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.”

Colossians 1:19 (ESV)

“in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”

Colossians 2:3 (NKJV)

“in [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

- Because of what He has done for you.

Luke 17:20-21 (ESV)

“The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

Matthew 13:31-33 (ESV)

“’The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’ He told them another parable. ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.’”

- Because of what He offers you.

- He can never be taken away from you.

John 10:28-30 (NIV)

"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

3. Selling

Matthew 13;44,46 (ESV)

“In his joy he goes and sells all that he has…Finding one pearl of great value, [he] went and sold all that he had.”

Philippians 3:4-7 (ESV)

“I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”

Parables // The Parable of the Elder Brother

September 22, 2024 • Luke 15:25–32, Matthew 20:8–15

Parables // The Parable of the Elder Brother Luke 15:25-32 (NIV) ““Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”” Symptoms of “the elder brother syndrome” 1. Projects judgment towards others and God. 2. Inflated view of their own righteousness. 3. Misunderstanding of God’s grace. Matthew 20:8-15 (The Message) “’Call the workers and pay them their wages. Start with the last hired and go on to the first. Those hired at five o’clock came up and were each given a dollar.’ When those who were hired first saw that, they assumed they would get far more. But they got the same, each of them one dollar. Taking the dollar, they groused angrily to the manager, ‘These last workers put in only one easy hour, and you just made them equal to us, who slaved all day under a scorching sun.’ [sound like the older brother?] He replied to the one speaking for the rest, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair. We agreed on the wage of a dollar, didn’t we? So take it and go. I decided to give to the ones who came last the same as you. Can’t I do what I want with my money? Are you going to get stingy because I am so generous?’” The loving father’s message to the elder brother. 1. It’s not your works I cherish, it’s you. 2. All I have is yours. 3. I want you to enjoy my party.

Parables // Lost & Found

September 15, 2024 • Luke 15, Luke 19:10

Parables // Lost & Found Lost & Found Luke 15 The Lost Sheep The Lost Coin The Lost Son Two Kingdom attitudes to embrace. 1. Compassion 2. "For the Son of Man [Jesus] has come to save that which was lost." LUKE 19:10 (NKJV) Celebration "The Lost Sons” God seeks sinners and wants them to come to Him. God and all of heaven rejoice when a sinner turns to God. Do you need to up your practice of Compassion and Celebration?

Parables // Jesus Wants To Do A New Thing In Your Life

September 8, 2024 • Isaiah 61:3, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Hebrews 3:7–9, Luke 5:27–39, Psalm 34:8

Parables // Jesus Wants To Do A New Thing In Your Life Luke 5:27-39 (NIV) “Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. ‘Follow me,’ Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’ They said to him, ‘John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.’ Jesus answered, ‘Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.’ He told them this parable: ‘No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’” 1. Jesus came to give you a spirit of joy not burdensome sorrow. Psalm 34:8 (NIV) “Taste and see that the Lord is good;” Isaiah 61:3 (NIV) “to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” 2. Jesus came to do something brand new in your life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV) “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 3. Resisting what Jesus is doing will cause your life to get messy. Hebrews 3:7-9 (NIV) “So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.’”