Port City Faith Church
Sunday Morning - October 11th, 2026
  • There Is Power In The Blood (Power In The Blood)
  • Your Love Never Fails
  • What A Beautiful Name
  • We have been looking at the main subject of Jesus’s teaching
    The kingdom of Heaven
    First we looked at how the Kingdom of heaven is here, not as a political kingdom, but as a kingdom not of this world.
    Then we explored what it looked like to be part of the Kingdom of Heaven as Jesus described in the Sermon on the mount.
    Then we looked at the kinds of people that enter the kingdom of heaven,
    The People who like children are completely reliant on God’s mercy
    Last week we started actually looking at what Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is like in his parables,
    And how the kingdom is one that will grow, when the right people hear and receive the Gospel.
    And that we are supposed to just keep sharing the gospel with everyone, and trust God to bring those who hear into the kingdom.
    Today we are going to look at some more of those parables, which talk about the value of the Kingdom of God
    Matthew 13:44–46 ESV
    “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.
    Two short parables here, which say pretty much the same thing. Someone finds something of immense value, sells everything they have to get it.
    And it is very easy to read this as saying the kingdom of Heaven is so valuable that you need to give up everything for it.
    And in many ways that is true!
    You are either all in for the kingdom of heaven, or you are not part of it
    You cannot hedge your bets with the kingdom of God,
    You cannot sit on the fence.
    But we here in America have it so easy, and we try to make it easy for people to join the kingdom, and we turn being a christian into “Believe in Jesus,” when it was supposed to be “leave everything behind and follow Jesus”
    We have been skirting around this story a few weeks now, but lets look at it again:
    Mark 10:17–22 ESV
    And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
    This wealthy young man comes up to Jesus and asks how he can inherit eternal life,
    And Jesus tells him to follow the commandments.
    And the man says “I have”
    But then Jesus says, the next step is to sell everything you have, give the proceeds to the poor, and follow me.
    And the man can’t do it.
    Becuase he loves his wealth too much, and he is not ready to risk it all to follow Jesus.
    Mark 10:23–30 ESV
    And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
    We have looked at this passage a couple of times - its easier to put a camel though the eye of a needle than for a wealthy person to enter the kingdom of God.
    Becuase it means learning to trust Jesus more than money, more than goods, more than comfort, more than anything.
    To love God with all your heart, Soul, Mind and Strength.
    And then notice what Peter says “what about the 12 of us who have left everything behind?”
    And Jesus responds by saying that yes, they gave up everything to follow him, but they will receive much more because it is worth it.
    It the treasure in the field, it’ the pearl of great price.
    Jesus is much more explicit about it in the book of Luke
    Luke 14:25–33 ESV
    Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
    There were many people who wanted to follow Jesus, and he had to tell them to let everything thing else go.
    And he does not mince words. Whoever does not Hate - or despise his father, mother, wife Children,
    whoever does not despise his own life Cannot be a disciple
    And this isn’t “love your family less than you love me”
    there isn’t a hidden meaning in the Greek, it is the Greek word meaning to hate or despise or reject.
    And it means that if you follow Jesus and your family doesn’t, you are going to have to be okay with that.
    Following Jesus means picking up your cross and going to your death.
    And he tells the people to consider the costs,
    Is this something you are willing to do Are you willing to give all you have to follow Jesus?
    Following Jesus can cost you your family, your friends, and in may parts of the world your life.
    There are many places in the world today where, if you follow Jesus, your family has to treat you like you no longer exist.
    There are places like Iran and Nigeria where being a christian means you are being hunted down and slaughtered.
    Last year over 3,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria simply for being christian.
    That works out to about 250 a month, 60 a week, not quite 10 a day.
    We have it easy here church. We have it so easy.
    The Apostle Paul thought this way also:
    Philippians 3:7–8 ESV
    But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
    The Apostle Paul gave up everything he had to follow Jesus,
    And not just stuff,
    If you look at the verses before he doesn’t list his stuff or his wealth as what he is giving up, but his reputation and identity as someone who had checked all the boxes in trying to follow the laws.
    He was very much like the rich young man. Following all the commandments,
    But when presented with Jesus, he gave it all up, his reputation, his dreams, his goals, for a much greater treasure.
    He counted his past as “rubbish”
    Literally “as dung”
    Becuase Christ and his Kingdom were worth it.
    So the parables are saying Kingdom of heaven is so valuable that we ought to give up everything to become part of it.
    Our Reputation,
    our families
    our lives.
    But Christ promises to give us back so much more in return.
    However I think there is another way to read these parables as well.
    lets look at them closer:
    Matthew 13:44–46 ESV
    “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.
    The first one says the Kingdom is like a treasure hidden in the field.
    So valuable that we should be willing to give up everything for it.
    Becuase we know that it is worth far more than whatever we give up.
    But the second one doesn’t say the kingdom is like a pearl, but like a merchant looking for the pearl.
    And when he finds it he sells all his stuff to have just that one pearl.
    he’s found what he wants and isn’t planning on selling it.
    Church I think in this parable the Man doing the searching is God, and we are the pearl.
    We are the treasure God is willing to give everything for.
    And I want to point something out here.
    God called the people of Israel his treasured possession after he delivered them from Egypt:
    Exodus 19:5–6 ESV
    Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
    He calls them his treasured possession, a kingdom of Priests, a holy nation.
    But then Israel’s story is one of continuous rebellion against God.
    So that at the end of the Old Testament in the Book of Malachi, we see a shift. Malachi has a vision of God trying to figure out what to do with Israel and the Jewish people.
    Malachi 3:16–18 ESV
    Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
    God shifts his focus from Israel which has rebelled against him, to a more specific, “those who fear the Lord”
    And God says that those who fear him - those that respect him, they shall be his treasured possession.
    Those are the ones that are made righteous.
    And this includes both Israel, those among them that did not rebel, and everyone else who comes to fear the Lord
    And then Peter, hundreds of years later, writes to the Christians around the world
    1 Peter 2:9–10 ESV
    But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
    It is not just Israel, it is not just the jews who are God’s treasured possession, but throughout all the world and among all peoples, there are those who fear the Lord, come to him and repent, those willing to give up everything to follow Jesus,
    and they are God’s Kingdom, God’s holy Nation, a royal priesthood, - all language that God used for Israel in exodus, now applied to us.
    His treasured possession.
    Church that is us.
    We are his treasured possession, we are his pearl of great value that cost him everything:
    John 3:16 ESV
    “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
    Can we say it any better than that?
    God so loved us, that he gave Jesus, His only Son, God become man, to die on the cross in our place so that he could extend mercy to those who love and fear him.
    God risked taking on the full weight of sin and death in order to save us.
    So Two parables, both very similar,
    but one parable is about the joy of finding the kingdom of heaven, and the cost of attaining it,
    and the other is about what God gave up to build his kingdom, and find his treasure.
    To find us.
    God gave up all for us, and now calls us to give up the things we hold onto in this life and follow him, so that he may bless us beyond measure.
    So, church, how much are you willing to give up? How much are you willing to give to the God who gave up everything to save you?
    Are you willing to give up everything?
    Are you willing to pick up your cross and follow Jesus to his death?
    and in doing so also follow him in his resurrection?

      • Matthew 13:44–46ESV

      • Mark 10:17–22ESV

      • Mark 10:23–30ESV

      • Luke 14:25–33ESV

      • Philippians 3:7–8ESV

      • Matthew 13:44–46ESV

      • Exodus 19:5–6ESV

      • Malachi 3:16–18ESV

      • 1 Peter 2:9–10ESV

      • John 3:16ESV

  • Send Me
Port City Faith Church
portcityfaith@gmail.com
(315)-342-5333
http://portcityfaith.com
3 members • 1 follower