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Sermon of the Week 
Tuesday, November 01 2022

LET’S MAKE SOME PEARLS...  

Today we’re going to unpack this challenge that comes from Jesus Himself in the book of Matthew...                                                                                                               Matthew 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which when a man has found, he hid it, and for joy he went out and sold all that he had, and bought that field”.

John Steinbeck said “It is the hour of the pearl—the interval between what is and what can be. When time stops and examines itself.” 

A Nigerian Proverb says “A pearl is only appreciated when it’s out of its shell.” 

Chris Gardner wrote “The world is your oyster. It’s up to you to make some pearls.” – 

I was reading about a tenant farmer in Suffolk England, a man called Peter Wattling. He lost his hammer in an overgrown field. So, he hired his friend, Eric Laws, with a metal detector to go looking. Instead of finding a hammer they discovered the largest collection of fifth century Roman artifacts in the world, worth about five million dollars. (Does anyone feel the urge to go out and buy a metal detector)

The point is that the value of the field was now based on the treasure that was discovered in it. How many had the field before, we don’t know. How often had someone walked across it’s surface, and seen only the value based on what it could grow, or the livestock which could be contained there. But someone looked below the surface and found the real treasure that was hidden out of sight. 

I also read about a farmer in Africa who was clearing his field and piling up the stones to form a wall and one stone caught his eye. He liked it so much that, he brought it into the house and used it as a doorstop. A traveling vendor stopped at his farm to see if there was something he could sell. As he sat on the couch, he noticed the stone and asked about it. It turned out to be the largest uncut diamond ever found. The farmer said, oh, the field is full of them, they’re a nuisance when I’m trying to plow the field for planting. What he saw as a nuisance was a treasure in disguise worth millions! He was rich and didn’t know it

The plain, unlovely, oyster that contains the pearls, like the ugly uncut diamond, can be easily missed, if you don’t know what to look for. Oysters will never hold a beauty contest, that’s for sure!                                                     So Jesus gave us a parable to give oysters some badly needed attention

Matthew 13:45 “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it”.

Let’s suppose that this merchant is at the fish market where the oysters are and he buys a dozen oysters and as he opens one of them, he finds a valuable pearl, and he gets so excited that he buys up all the oysters at the market that day, because he realizes the potential treasure which may be found in these amazing sea creatures. Before you get that excited, just know that You’ll have to go through a lot of oysters to find some pearls. Only one in 10,000 oysters have pearls in their natural habitat. That’s a lot of oysters!                                                               But pearl farmers can cultivate pearls by stimulating every single oyster, that’s 100 percent... That’s what we’re going for! Cultivated pearls...Every test, every challenge produces a pearl....  

We know that a pearl begins as an irritation in the oyster. Something has entered it’s life which causes it discomfort. So the oyster creates layer upon layer of shiny substance called nacar, or “mother of pearl” which transforms the irritating, uncomfortable object into a beautiful, desirable pearl!

Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like a pearl.....there is a piece of heaven in every trial, every disappointment, every hard place that we must go through. 

There are two kinds of challenges we face in life. One is described in scripture as that which is common to all men. These things are just part of living, and learning, and going through the school of the hard knocks university. 

The other kind is what the scripture calls pruning. It’s when God takes away, cuts away, and removes things which are stunting our growth, so that we can become all He wants us to be. A farmer will prune his orchard every year so that the growth can go into producing more fruit, instead of just growing more leaves. 

So, we have things that are common to man, and we have those things that are part of God’s pruning process. 

Another scripture describes our challenges in life as a smelting process which removes impurities and unprofitable things so that the purified substance which remains, might be realized. 

Job 23:10 “But he knows the way that I take, and when He hastried me, I shall come forth as gold”.  

My mission today, is to challenge each of us to find the treasure in the field. To lift our gaze a little higher that the circumstances we might be walking through at the moment, or the uncomfortable situation we might presently find ourselves in. Perhaps the irritating thing in your life is getting another layer of the mother of pearl substance applied to it, so that the real treasure can be revealed through it all.

Gwen Davis” wrote the following....Just like the oyster, irritants continually  intrude into my personal and professional life. Some of these intrusions aren’t merely irritants but full-scale catastrophes, which through no fault of mine, have caused me and others great personal suffering. Unlike the oyster though, I now know that I have a choice. I don’t have to accept the pearl-making process. I could refuse, or resist, or complain it away. Or I could give in, deal with my emotions and choices, and make a pearl. Even if I won’t ever be the one to reap its value”.

That last statement is the generational impact of pearl making. We may never see some of it, but it will be seen by future generations...

An oyster that has not been wounded can never produce a pearl. Pearls are a healed wound. Pearls are the result of pain, discomfort, and a foreign or unwanted substance entering the oyster, such as a parasite or a grain of sand. Pearls are a constantexample of how a person who has experienced despair, failure, being overcome by the cares of life, and walking through hopeless situations, have come out of it all wiser, stronger, and better equipped to overwhelm what was overwhelming them. They have awakened to the “greater one that is in them than he who is in the world”.  

Through every test, challenge and trial, God is challenging us to stop looking at what is, and begin to look at what can and will be, if we will allow Him to complete the process...                                                                    Some of the introductory comments which come before the parable which Jesus is sharing with the disciples about finding hidden treasure, are found in.....

Matthew 13:16 “But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it”.

Did you catch that...The blessing is not only in the finished product, but Jesus said that the blessing is on those who understand the process and allow the process to be accomplished with faith and hope, and excitement in their spirit, because they see the invisible, hear the inaudible, and handle the eternal, in order to receive the impossible. 

Jesus said that too many of us longed to see it but did not see it, and longed to hear it but did not hear it.....                                                               When we go by sight and not by faith, and we go by feelings and not by hope, and we go by vain imaginations and not by the inner vision of our spirit...we miss the precious pearl that is waiting to be formed in us.

Oh, how often do I need to hear it, again and again....                    Hebrews 11:1 “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.”

And I like this version, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the reality of things not seen”.

Also, this version...”Faith is presenting the title deed, guaranteeing the right    to possess our promised inheritance”.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for”, describes a conviction indicating that we have already taken possession —here and now—of what we hope for and what God has guaranteed is ours in the future”.

By faith Noah built the ark, saved his family, and became an heir of righteousness... By faith Abraham obeyed God and inherited the land of promise as he looked for a city whose builder and maker was God.... Faith, as the substance of things hoped for, activates believers to speak out boldly, pray unceasingly, love unconditionally, serve compassionately, work tirelessly, and invest in things eternal, as we look forth unto the perfect day of the Lord.

All of us oysters are different and yet the same.....We don’t all look alike and our stories don’t all sound alike and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Black and white, rich and poor, Ivy League scholars and high school dropouts, high profile citizens and nobodies from nowhere particular, are the types who belong in the kingdom through faith in Jesus. That means of course that we allhave a place, that we are all important in the kingdom where we all stand in a common reality... “FAITH IS THE SUBSTANCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR AND THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT YET SEEN”!!

We are each the pearl of great price, because of the price that was paid for us, and He has hidden us in a field, preparing us, developing us, getting ready to present us, as His treasure!

Psalm 8:4: “What are mere mortals that you should think about them, or a son of man that you should care for him? Yet for a little while you made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them authority over all things.’ Now when it says ‘all things,’ it means nothing is left out”.

In this parable of the pearl, the merchant sold all he had to buy the field and gain the pearl. You see, he did a careful cost-benefits analysis, he placed the total worth of everything in his life on one side of the scales and the total value of the pearl, on the other, and he found that the benefits of possessing the treasure, the total worth of the pearl, far, far beyond everything he had or could ever gain and it far outweighed any price he might have to pay in order to obtaining this treasure.  

Jesus is our greatest treasure, having Him, knowing Him, enjoying the forgiveness that He can provide, having our consciences made clean through His blood, being adopted into His family, becomingheirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another, being guided in all our confusions, comforted in all our sorrows, guided in all our wanderings, preserved through all our dangers, and brought safely home at last.... all of that makes Jesus Christ infinitely more precious, so that all who have Him can say about the Scriptures through which our Jesus speaks to us, “They are more precious to us than silver or gold,” 

And we can say to Him, “Whom have I in heaven but You?  There is nothing on earth that I desire beside You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but You Lord Jesus, You are the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  You’re my treasure.  You are the pearl of great price, more valuable to me than anything else in my life.”

Thomas Chalmers, one of the founders of the Free Church of Scotland, said, “Jesus, the pearl of great price, eliminates all lesser treasures.  It awakens a new appetite, a new affection, a new sense, a new taste, a new longing in the heart that nothing but He can fill.  And that longing and that delight in Christ out shines and out lasts every rival”.

Jesus, the greatest treasure, possesses our hearts, in such a way that we must have Him, and having Him, makes everything else of lesser importance. And our whole world finds it’s place in it’sproper order under Him. 

It is only in the light of Jesus' worth that we find our value. When the merchant found the valuable treasure, it immediately increased his value as well. 

Paul said “And the life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

2 Corinthians 3:18 “Whereby, we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, from glory to glory”. 

With each new revelation of Him, another layer of value is added to our pearl. Layer upon layer....line upon line.... precept, upon precept..... truth upon truth. 

Scripture tells us that the glory of the last house shall be greater than the glory of the former house. This is such an exciting statement because we are the dwelling place God has chosen to live in.... we are the house of God.... and this indicates that as we go through each hard place, each refining place, and each pruning place, we will transition through it all, with greater glory than when we went in!

NO doubt, like the pearl in the oyster, when you come out, you’ll be more glorious than when you went in...

The philosophy of every oyster is “If I can’t remove it, I’ll just improve it”

What if we went into every life challenge with the thought....”Thisis my opportunity to make some pearls. This is my chance to walk in greater glory than I have ever known before. This has not come to diminish or destroy me, but to transport me into greater glory”.

1 Corinthians 2:9 “But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hasprepared for them that love him.” (Somebody say “I’ll take all of that!)

Before I close, let me point out something else Jesus said in                                          Matthew 13:45 “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls”. 

“The key statement here is that the  merchant was  LOOKING FOR FINE PEARLS!.... Did you get that?

Jesus said that many have eyes but do not see, ears but they do not hear.... In Genesis God told Abraham to lift up his eyes, and see the Land, then God said, I have given it unto you....Then God said look up, count the stars if you can, for your descendants shall be as the stars...

God had to change the way Abraham saw things, How He was looking!

Elijah told the servant during famine, to look and tell me what you see, the said I see a cloud the size of a man’s hand. Elijah said I hear the sound of an abundance of rain.... It’s about what you see...

The prophet asked the widow woman what she saw, she saw a little meal and a little oil, the prophet saw enough to last through the famine for her and the entire neighborhood... the difference was what he saw.

Louisa May Alcott ...“Contentment is a pearl that many seek for and only a few ever hold it in their hand”

Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord God does nothing Unless He reveals His secret counsel To His servants”.

The merchant was looking for pearls, what are you looking for? If you only see the sickness, the pain, the problem, the impossibility, or the improbability, then that’s what you’ll get, but if you see the pearls are waiting to be formed through it all, then you’ll see beauty, redemption, restoration, renewal, and transformation....

My last point is that it’s hard to tell from the outward appearance, which oyster contains a pearl....Sometimes the ugliest shell contains the most beautiful pearl. 

I would not have chosen shepherds as the first people to receive the announcement that God was born in a humble stable....but God did.

I would not have chosen the demoniac of Gadara to be the first to share the gospel with his community, but Jesus saw what I could not.

I would not have chosen a despised, tax collector who was considered a traitor to his own people, as an apostle of the gospel, but Jesus did...

I definitely would not have picked Paul, a murderer, and hatchet man for the religious hexarchy as the chief apostle, but Jesus saw beyond the outward shell.

God is calling on us to make some pearls, and we’ll miss it if we only call it like it is, instead of how it can and will be in Jesus Name!

Romans 4:17 “Abraham believed God, who quickens the dead, and calls those things which are not as though they were. [18] Who against hope he believed in hope...”

We’ll find what we’re looking for and believing for....There’s not enough pearls in the world, let’s make some more... and let God be glorified...

I believe everyone of us have some oysters, that are holding pearls in the making....

The old chorus says “I know the Lord will make a way for me”.... believe it, what He’s done for so many others, He’ll do for you!

I call out to Eagle’s Rest, Let’s make some pearls... what do you say?!!!

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