Never Speak Bad About Yourself

Now, I want to take two parables. Matthew chapter 13. Have you ever pondered on this chapter? It’s the chapter of the seven parables. It’s a rich and exciting chapter, but I want to take two of the shortest. One is one verse, and the other is two verses.

In verse 44, my Bible heads this, “The Parable of the Hidden Treasure.” Jesus is speaking.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

If you think yourself into the history of the Middle East, how did that treasure get hidden in the field? Well, probably there was an invading army that came at some time, and a man was afraid of losing his possessions. And so, he quickly went to a field and buried his treasure in the field. But, who knows what happened? War swept that way. He never got back. And so, the treasure lay buried in the field.

And then, another man comes along, and he discovers the treasure. And he’s very, I would say, crafty. He doesn’t tell everybody about it. He hides it. He covers it up. And he goes and buys the field as though it were just an ordinary field. Maybe he pays a little excessive price. People marvel, “Why would he buy that field? There’s nothing in that field. It’s not worth what he paid for it.” But once he’s owned the field, he digs up the treasure, you see. And then, people understand why he bought the field.

And I want to say that man is Jesus. I know there are different ways of interpreting parables. But I want to interpret it this way, that man is Jesus. The field, as the parables tell us, is the world. Jesus died for the whole world. He paid the price for the whole world. But it isn’t the world He wants. It’s the treasure in the field. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. What is the treasure? God’s people. Thank you, Lord. So, He was willing to pay the price for an apparently worthless field in order to get the treasure, which is you and me.

That’s how much He cares for you and me. That’s how much He thinks of us. That’s how much we mean to Him. We are not unimportant. We’re not insignificant. We’re not worthless. We’re extremely valuable. Hallelujah. So valuable that Jesus gave His life to purchase us. Never again, from tonight onwards, talk about yourself as if you’re insignificant, or unimportant, or worthless. Just discard all that thinking. It’s not scriptural.

I’m not telling you to be proud, but I’m telling you to realize your true value. Because you gain nothing by this attitude of, “Poor me, I don’t mean, amount to much. I’m just a little something or other.” That’s not pleasing to God. You’re a son or a daughter of God. God has no second-class children. You are important. Yes, Amen. You are very, very valuable. You’re special. Begin to understand that here tonight. Drop that cringing attitude. Drop that sense of worthlessness. You don’t have to apologize for being you. It’s you that God wanted. Hallelujah. He wanted you the way you are, but He won’t leave you that way. You’re not glorifying God by being so humble, because it’s not humility. That's right. It’s unbelief. That's right. You are a child of God tonight, if you’ve received Jesus by faith. You’re part of the treasure. I think the ministry of the Gospel is digging the treasure out. Jesus bought the field. He leaves it to us to dig the treasure out.

And when treasure has been under the earth for a long while, it’s often corrupted and tarnished. And then, that’s part of the ministry too, is to polish it up and clean it up. I think that’s the ministry that God has given me, to polish up the treasure that’s been so long under the ground. God has given me a sense of the value of God’s people.