The Kingdom of Heaven
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Good morning! It is good to be together as family. This week we had the California Southern Baptist Convention in Clovis, CA. Over 500 of our brothers and sisters from Southern Baptist churches around California came together to worship, hear the word of God preached, fellowship, and conduct the business of the convention. You may be wondering why I’m wearing this huge belt. At this convention I finished my second and final term as the Vice President of the California Southern Baptist Convention, and as a thank you, our President for the last two years, Pastor Victor Chayasirisobhon of 1st Southern Baptist in Anaheim, likes to give out WWE Belts as thank yous, and so this is a tag team championship belt as we were partners for the last two years. I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for their support as I served our convention in this role. As Victor often said, we are family. And as we said throughout the convention, we are better together.
Everyone hold up the piece of paper we gave you this morning. You will notice that it is perforated in the middle. At the top of the paper I want you to write “I wish that...”. Now, I want you to write down one thing that you really want underneath “I wish that” on the top half of the paper. It could be an object, or it could be an event. It could be a miracle you could only dream of or perhaps something very simple that is just weighing heavily upon you. I’ll give you a minute to write it down.
Does everyone have it down? There are a lot of things I could have written down. On one hand I could put down a pickup truck. I would love to have one, though it is just not a necessity right now and God has provided for our transportation. I could write that I want my kids to find good, godly spouses. I could write that I want to see this building filled to capacity all day, every Sunday, or perhaps that I’d love to learn how to play the violin or learn a new language.
Of course the follow up questions are what are you willing to do or what are you willing to give up so that you could obtain your goal? See the thing that often keeps us from obtaining our goals is that there are other things we value more. I do not have a truck because I value food on my table and a roof over my head more than I value a truck. Now it is true there is no way I can work my way to my children having a good, godly spouse, but then again I can pray for that eventuality, and that requires me to give up some time.
Let’s open our Bibles to Matthew 13:44-46.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls.
When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had and bought it.
Además, el reino de los cielos es semejante a un tesoro escondido en un campo, el cual un hombre halla, y lo esconde de nuevo; y gozoso por ello va y vende todo lo que tiene, y compra aquel campo.
También el reino de los cielos es semejante a un mercader que busca buenas perlas,
que habiendo hallado una perla preciosa, fue y vendió todo lo que tenía, y la compró.
What is the kingdom of heaven? Matthew is the only gospel writer to use this term. It is very Jewish in origin as Jews avoided using God’s name so they would not use it improperly and violate the third commandment(Exodus 20:7) and instead of saying kingdom of God would say kingdom of heaven. Let’s look at Matthew 4:17
From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Desde entonces comenzó Jesús a predicar, y a decir: Arrepentíos, porque el reino de los cielos se ha acercado.
The Greek behind “has come near” carries the meaning that the kingdom of heaven is present and yet also coming. Jesus is ushering in this kingdom as he is headed to the cross to die for our sins, and then rise on the third day so that
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
I’m just going to quote from everyone
porque todo aquel que invocare el nombre del Señor, será salvo.
Jesus then tells his disciples to share the same message in Matthew 10:7 as he sends them out to the “lost sheep of Israel.”
This kingdom language is even invoked in the great commission as Jesus tells his disciples that “all authority has been given to me in heave and on earth.”
Let us look again at Matthew 13:44-46
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls.
When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had and bought it.
Además, el reino de los cielos es semejante a un tesoro escondido en un campo, el cual un hombre halla, y lo esconde de nuevo; y gozoso por ello va y vende todo lo que tiene, y compra aquel campo.
También el reino de los cielos es semejante a un mercader que busca buenas perlas,
que habiendo hallado una perla preciosa, fue y vendió todo lo que tenía, y la compró.
Clearly, the attainment of the kingdom of heaven is in view as Jesus tells this parable. How precious it is to follow Jesus and be part of the kingdom! My first question then is, What are you willing to give up to follow Jesus? It is clear from this parable that the kingdom of heaven is worth more than everything we have!
I want to extend this principle as well. Part of being in the kingdom is making disciples. Obedient disciples of Jesus reproduce, making disciples by telling others about Jesus and teaching them so that they can also know God. This leads to my second question, What are you willing to do to see someone else come into the kingdom?
Brothers and sisters, I’ll let you in on a secret, I really do not like Halloween. I wish I could just go out to eat and avoid the whole thing. But I also know that by doing a trunk or treat we can share the gospel with well over 100 people and show them the love of Christ. I will gladly ignore my preferences to tell people about Jesus.
As a church family we are at a crossroads. We have been together now for a year! We are better together! And what are we? We are family! But we need to take steps forward. It is my hope that by the first Sunday in January we can launch a Sunday School program for our children, youth and adults that meets before our services each week. While the children and youth will learn primarily in English we will have adult classes in both Spanish and English, and if there is interest, we can even do a bilingual Bible study. I believe it is crucial to our growth to have strong programs for children and youth and this is just the beginning step toward making that a reality. In order to do this though we need 10-12 teachers who are willing to commit to teaching each week, who can pass a background check, and are willing to go to trainings throughout the year to become better teachers. We need teachers for babies, preschoolers, elementary, and junior and senior high classes as well as the adult classes so that together we can become better disciples of Jesus!
Our children’s church is ongoing. Even now there are some who have given up this time to teach our children, but we need more people willing to give up a service once a month so that children can understand how much Jesus loves them.
We need greeters who will welcome longtime church members and first time attenders and make them feel at home, in English and in Spanish.
We need those who would make coffee and bring pastries so that we can enjoy some fellowship together before and after our services.
We need those who would help with social media, websites, and the behind the scenes technical work of sound and video ministry.
We need men who will mentor men and women who will mentor women.
I believe that every follower of Jesus in this room can serve and that their service is vital to the family. God has a role for every one of us! So I want to end with a new question and some old ones.
How would God have you serve on a regular basis on Sunday mornings?
What are you willing to give up to be obedient?
What are you willing to do to help someone into the kingdom?
I want to ask you to take out that paper again and on the bottom, I want you to write your answers to these last two questions.
I’ve asked Kim to play the song I Surrender All as we respond to God’s word this morning. I’m going to pray and then give you a chance to respond. For some of you here today may be the day you say yes to following Jesus. He loves you so much that he died a horrible death, nailed to a cross, so that he could take your punishment for your sin so that you could be forgiven of your sins and have eternal life. He offers that forgiveness and life freely to all who would call on his name. If you are ready to say yes to Jesus would you come forward in a minute and talk to myself or Pastor Gustavo so we can help you take that first step of faith?
For those of you who have already taken that first step of faith, I want to challenge you to do something a little different today. I asked you to write down what you were willing to give up to be obedient or what you were willing to do to help someone into the kingdom. During this time would you take that piece of paper, bring it up here to the cross, and then either nail it to the cross or place it at the foot of the cross as a very public commitment to doing what you wrote down. No one is going to memorize who put what where or try to match handwriting. This is between you and God. I just ask that as you respond you listen to the Holy Spirit and are obedient.