Surprised by Good Outcomes

Discussion Questions:

What is it about good surprises that you enjoy the most?
What events in life brought you the greatest joy?
Can you think of a time in your ‘kingdom life’ that you were surprised by an unforeseen good outcome when you were looking for nothing?
Can you think of a time in your ‘kingdom life’ that you were looking for something good, but found something even better?
What do these parables teach about the value of the kingdom of God?
With what passion and effort should it be pursued?
Have you ever seen something you absolutely had to have? What were you willing to do to get it?
What does it mean to “sell everything” for the kingdom?
List examples of good things we pursue that fail to answer our deepest needs?
How can we make certain that we are prepared for the surprising moment of unforeseen good outcomes?
How have you experienced the truth that God places the heaviest weights on the thin wire of decision?
If you wanted to leave here today finding treasure you weren’t looking for, how would you do it?

I want to direct your attention to two short stories told by Jesus. They hang like a locket on the necklace of truths told by Jesus. Who knows, but they may just have your ID on them. Though the teachings are brief, they are chock full of the surprise of good outcomes. Listen to the truth Jesus describes in Matthew 13:44-46, “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.” I hope God will help us understand the profound truth of those words. Let’s think for a few minutes about the surprise of good outcomes.

Illustration: Roosevelt

An unforeseen good outcome.

I say that because I want to direct your attention to the reality that sometimes, out of the most unlikely circumstances, God can bring unforeseen, surprising good outcomes. For someone who may have wandered in here today without much expectation at all; this day could be a day of surprising, unforeseen, life-changing good outcomes. Why?

Because Jesus said in the first of these two short stories that sometimes you may be surprised by an unforeseen good outcome when you are looking for nothing. He tells a story about a day laborer who went out to plow the field of another man. This is not a land owner plowing his own field. He has no vested interest at all. This isn’t even a share cropper plowing fields on the thirds. This is a day laborer. A man who went out and for a denarius plowed the field of another man. His pay was the common gold coin that was accepted as the norm for a days work. All day under the searing hot sun, his sandals sizzling from the sand underneath, by the end of the day he’s tired. All he wants is that little gold coin and to get away. He expects nothing other than the norm. He merely wants enough to buy his daily allotment of food so he won’t starve. Late in the afternoon he hears a clink. Going through his mindless routine, the clink alerts him. Like hearing an alarm, he startles. The plowshare has hit a ceramic vessel. He falls on his knees and claws through the soil until he comes out with a jar. The ancient people called them amphoras; clay pots. He rips the top off and inside he sees the shimmer of gold. He looks around to make sure no one has seen. He covers it up and buries it as if nothing has happened. He goes off and gets together everything he can and he buys that field so that he might have the treasure. The bible indicates that he did it for the joy of it. He’d done the ancient equivalent of winning the lottery and he was looking for nothing.

This sounds like an unlikely story to us because most of us don’t think we’re going to be digging in our back yard and dig up a jar full of gold. But it was very likely in this land. This was a narrow neck of land called Palestine; the Holy Land. It was between great empires to the northeast and the southwest (Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia). Time after time they raked over that little land the size of Vermont, tiny Israel. Before there were any safe deposit boxes or banks, if you saw the Assyrians or the Egyptians coming all you could do was run out and bury what you had in the ground. And when they carried you off you had to hope that your grandchild remembered where it was buried. So all over that land, there was buried treasure. On December 21st of last year, a British tourist unearthed more than 250 gold coins from the 7th century on the edge of Jerusalem’s OldCity. The coins were found in the same place that a 2,000 year-old earring was dug up in November. It’s still happening. So this man did something that wasn’t all that uncommon. He was looking for nothing, and was surprised by unforeseen good outcomes.

How did you get here this morning? I don’t mean your mode of transportation. Did you come because someone invited you? Did you come because it’s habit? Somebody came here today because they were drafted. You may not have had a choice. You may have come here today because you woke up alone and you thought, ‘I’d rather be with somebody than nobody.’ Loneliness can suffocate us. Somebody came because you like the sweet harmony of praise music. There’s just something about it that braces us and helps us face life. There are many reasons why people come, but I want to talk to someone here today who came expecting nothing. This day can be a day as Jesus talked about because he said the kingdom of God is like this. The kingdom of God refers to the rule of God in your life, and Jesus said it’s like this. One morning, any old regular day you may wake up expecting the same old same old, but the spirit of the living God can change everything for you in an unforeseen good outcome.

Illustration: Finding something you weren’t looking for

Then there’s you; just a normal everyday kind of person. I’m aware there’s a voice here today beyond my voice. It speaks to your soul in places I don’t even imagine. It’s pinning this message to you and it’s saying, ‘You came here today expecting nothing. You can leave here today surprised by unforeseen good outcomes.’ Today you can meet the Lord Jesus Christ in ways you’ve never known him before and he will reign in your life.

That’s not the only kind of people here today. Look at this other short story told by Jesus. Some of us are surprised by good outcomes when we are looking for nothing, but there are some people who are looking for something good and they’re surprised by the unforeseen outcomes of something better. Let’s look at the pearl merchant. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.” Don’t imagine someone running a little jewelry store. This man is a pearl merchant on a grand scale. Not a retailer, but a wholesaler. He leaves the area of the Holy Land and goes over to the area of the Persian Gulf. Just like there are oil sheiks today, there used to be pearl sheiks. He went over 600 miles of sand, seeking a pearl of great price. This man was a collector. He was a connoisseur. He’d seen plenty of pearls, but he wanted one that transcended all the rest. As he was there he went up to this tented dwelling of a sheik. You can kind of picture the saffron colored tent flaps blowing in the wind. There on Persian rugs sits the pearl merchant facing the pearl sheik who pulls out a silk purse and removes from it a pearl of near perfection. Their eyes meet and speak a language that only a true connoisseur of pearls would understand. Did you ever see something that you just absolutely had to have? This was that moment to the nth degree. This man saw the best pearl he’d ever seen and in that moment, he was ready to take his pearl empire and sell it all for this one pearl of great value.

Someone came here this morning looking for something good. People come to church that way. I don’t think this is a room full of people who broke all Ten Commandments at once last night. Some of us came here today because we’re looking for something good. We’ve tried good things. We’ve tried education. Many of you have devoted your entire lives to that noble cause. If you’re not in school, you’re at school. You drink deeply at the fountain of education. But, you’re well aware that that alone won’t meet your deepest needs. By all means, you have to have your education, but that’s not the answer. Others of you are aesthetes. You love music, or art, or literature; all elevated pursuits. These things lift you up and help you transcend the normal nuances of life, and that’s good. But good, and beautiful, and true won’t fill the deepest need of your life. You see, behind everything in this world that is good, and true, and beautiful there’s a face. That face is the face of Jesus. If there’s anything good, anything worth living for and dying for, behind it is the face of Jesus. You can drink and drink and drink at the best wells of human knowledge and achievement, but at the end of the day you’ll still be thirsty without Jesus.

Illustration: Finding the best thing vs. Finding a cheap substitute

If there’s any lesson in that at all it’s this. Whoever you are, don’t mortgage your life for paste pearls. Jesus is the only pearl of great price.

These two men had nothing in common. One was a poor day laborer hoping to get a sliver of bread to stay alive; the other, a wealthy pearl merchant doing business on an international scale. They were miles apart. But, they had one thing in common and that is when the moment of the surprise of unforeseen good outcomes arrived they put everything on the table. I don’t know what it meant for a plowman to go sell everything he had. He probably didn’t have much, but whatever he had he sold it all and in an instant for the joy of the discovery bought the field. This wealthy merchant had an empire of pearls, but in that moment didn’t hesitate to put all of them on the table for one jewel. Is life like that? You better believe it. God hangs the heaviest weights on the thinnest wires of decision. William Shakespeare said it like this, “There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.” In this context, if you turn from the call of God on your life, you’ll spend the rest of your life in self-pity because you let the opportunity pass you by. You have to seize the moment.

I know I’m not the only one making you think about Jesus. He’s everywhere. People all over this place are thinking about Jesus. He’s around us all the time. You can’t spend a penny without a date on it that represents how long it’s been since he was born. He’s there. You can’t have an official document without having on it a date. That date is a reminder of the time he entered the world. He’s there. You need to do something about it this morning and you can have the surprise of unforeseen good outcomes. You can walk out of here today finding a treasure that you weren’t even looking for.

Illustration: Trusting God