July 23rd, 2026
by Mark Huff
by Mark Huff
What is worth everything?
That sounds like a strange question, but Jesus spends an entire afternoon in Matthew 13 asking a version of it... By the end of the day, he has told seven. That is not an accident. That is a teacher who knows one image is never enough.
The first two parables are about size and speed. The kingdom is like a mustard seed, the smallest seed a Galilean farmer regularly planted, which grows into a shrub large enough for birds to nest... The kingdom is like yeast a woman hides in three measures of flour, close to fifty pounds, enough bread to feed more than a hundred people. In both cases the beginning looks like almost nothing. You cannot watch yeast. But you can taste the results.
That should mean something to our church. We do not always feel large. We do not always feel powerful. In a denomination that has walked through real change these past few years, it is tempting to measure the kingdom by visible strength. But God's kingdom has never needed to start great in order to end up being everything. Paul describes the Christian life the same way, being transformed from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Not all at once. One degree at a time. For most of us, faith is not a lightning bolt. It is bread rising slowly. It is grace working through us until one day we notice we are more patient than we used to be, more generous, quicker to forgive.
Then Jesus shifts from small beginnings to enormous worth. A man finds treasure hidden in a field and, in his joy, sells everything he has to buy that field. A merchant who has spent his whole career searching for fine pearls finally finds the one, and he does the same thing. He sells it all, gladly.
Notice the word Matthew uses. Joy. Not obligation, not duty, not sacrifice. Joy. The same word shows up in Hebrews 12:2, where we read that Jesus, for the joy set before him, endured the cross. The farmer and the merchant are living out a small version of the same pattern.
Here is the uncomfortable truth these parables press on us. Everyone worships something. Everyone builds their life around whatever they believe is most valuable, whether that is money, approval, success, or family. Jesus said it plainly: where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21). So the question is never whether you will give everything for something. You already do. The question is what you have decided is worth everything.
Our problem is not that our desires are too strong. It is that they are too weak. We settle for lesser things, warming our hands around a candle while God is offering us the sun. We settle because we have not yet found something we believe is worth everything. Paul found it: "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8).
Look at the farmer. Look at the merchant. Neither one is standing around after with buyer's remorse. They are full of joy, because they know exactly the worth of what they received. That is what following Jesus is supposed to feel like. Not a loss. A great discovery. So maybe the invitation this week is simply this. Do not despise the small, quiet work God is doing in you now.
Despite our brokenness, God's grace restores the divine image within us, one degree of glory at a time. And when you finally see what the kingdom is worth, do not hold back.
Sell the field. Buy the pearl. Let the yeast keep working.
Because the kingdom of heaven is worth everything.
Pastor Mark
That sounds like a strange question, but Jesus spends an entire afternoon in Matthew 13 asking a version of it... By the end of the day, he has told seven. That is not an accident. That is a teacher who knows one image is never enough.
The first two parables are about size and speed. The kingdom is like a mustard seed, the smallest seed a Galilean farmer regularly planted, which grows into a shrub large enough for birds to nest... The kingdom is like yeast a woman hides in three measures of flour, close to fifty pounds, enough bread to feed more than a hundred people. In both cases the beginning looks like almost nothing. You cannot watch yeast. But you can taste the results.
That should mean something to our church. We do not always feel large. We do not always feel powerful. In a denomination that has walked through real change these past few years, it is tempting to measure the kingdom by visible strength. But God's kingdom has never needed to start great in order to end up being everything. Paul describes the Christian life the same way, being transformed from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Not all at once. One degree at a time. For most of us, faith is not a lightning bolt. It is bread rising slowly. It is grace working through us until one day we notice we are more patient than we used to be, more generous, quicker to forgive.
Then Jesus shifts from small beginnings to enormous worth. A man finds treasure hidden in a field and, in his joy, sells everything he has to buy that field. A merchant who has spent his whole career searching for fine pearls finally finds the one, and he does the same thing. He sells it all, gladly.
Notice the word Matthew uses. Joy. Not obligation, not duty, not sacrifice. Joy. The same word shows up in Hebrews 12:2, where we read that Jesus, for the joy set before him, endured the cross. The farmer and the merchant are living out a small version of the same pattern.
Here is the uncomfortable truth these parables press on us. Everyone worships something. Everyone builds their life around whatever they believe is most valuable, whether that is money, approval, success, or family. Jesus said it plainly: where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21). So the question is never whether you will give everything for something. You already do. The question is what you have decided is worth everything.
Our problem is not that our desires are too strong. It is that they are too weak. We settle for lesser things, warming our hands around a candle while God is offering us the sun. We settle because we have not yet found something we believe is worth everything. Paul found it: "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8).
Look at the farmer. Look at the merchant. Neither one is standing around after with buyer's remorse. They are full of joy, because they know exactly the worth of what they received. That is what following Jesus is supposed to feel like. Not a loss. A great discovery. So maybe the invitation this week is simply this. Do not despise the small, quiet work God is doing in you now.
Despite our brokenness, God's grace restores the divine image within us, one degree of glory at a time. And when you finally see what the kingdom is worth, do not hold back.
Sell the field. Buy the pearl. Let the yeast keep working.
Because the kingdom of heaven is worth everything.
Pastor Mark
Posted in Mark My Words
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