This sermon emphasizes the importance of reordering our priorities to seek God first, even when we don't feel like it. It highlights the need to set our hearts to continually seek the Lord, as seeking God is the key to aligning our priorities. The message stresses the value of the kingdom of God as a priceless treasure that requires us to pay the price of dying to self to access it.

Matthew chapter 13, I'm not going to get through a lot, I'm just going to start with verse 44 where we left off last week. And Jesus has been talking about parables and different things that obviously get our attention. And the title of the message tonight is Priorities. Here today, gone tomorrow. Has that ever happened to you? You have these wonderful priorities and then they vanish, they're gone. God requires a reordering of our priorities. The purpose of priorities is to put first things first, even when we don't feel like it, and especially when we don't feel like it. It's like a set of blueprints. Priorities help us build the correct life. And it doesn't matter what we want to do first. That's why priorities are so important. They actually help us do what we don't want to do. And I mentioned a set of blueprints there. Can you imagine trying to put the roof on the house without the footings even dug? You know, you drive out to the construction site and there's just a blank piece of barren land. And somebody wants to put in the shower right now. And somebody wants to put the roof in. Why is that not going to work? Because you have to have that blueprint. You have to have the priorities. What comes first? What comes second? What comes third? And the same thing in our own Christian walk. The same thing applies. And I want to just take a quick test. I actually heard Chip Ingram mention on the radio this week, talking about J.I. Packard's book, Knowledge of the Holy. And I encourage you to read that if you get a chance. But I want to take a test and just show you, show me where our priorities are at. If we think we have a priority focused on God, let's answer these four quick tests. Number one, is my energy directed towards God? Is my energy directed towards God and towards the things of God? Or is my energy focused elsewhere? Well, priority might be off kilter. You might not have the correct priority. Number two, do I have great thoughts about God? Great thoughts about God or on godly things. In other words, are my thoughts consumed with the things of God? Are my thoughts consumed with godly things, godly ambitions? Or are my thoughts consumed with everything else but God? Number three, is there a boldness in your life to live for Christ? Is there a boldness to live for Christ? Is there a boldness to speak about the things of God? Is there a boldness there? I've got to tell people about God. I've got to tell people about the truth. There's a boldness when you're challenged. There's a boldness there. That means your priorities are probably in line. Your priorities are lined up with God. And the fourth point, great contentment in God. Is there great contentment in God? Or is fear and anxiety ruling your life? And we know when we have contentment in God, don't we? Where there's contentment there, there's not a lot of anxiety. There's not a lot of fear. There's not a lot of, oh, my world's falling apart. My life's falling apart. Things are chaotic. There's contentment in God. There's resting in God. So if you have an energy for God, you have thoughts towards God, you have a boldness for God, and you are content in God, it's a good sign that your priorities are where they need to be. Or if you answered no to most of those questions, this sermon is for you. Because I want to help you get your priorities back in the right direction. And actually, the more I was thinking about this, priorities, we don't realize how absolutely vital they are. Priority is putting first things first. And as you're watching the news, and so am I, I realized, and it was a sobering thought, that I'm going to have to teach my children how to die for Christ. Do you see that's coming to that? Maybe not in our generation, but the next generation, there's a good chance that they're going to have to die for their faith. How do you teach your child to die for Christ, to die for God? Well, number one, God has to be a priority. Listen, guys, we are living in such a time where if God is not a priority, if the things of God are not a priority, you will be left behind. You will drift away by the cares of this life. It's getting that radical. There's no gray area. It's right and wrong, good and bad, truth and error, heaven and hell. And they are separating those lines. It's not like we can live comfortably in the middle anymore. And teaching our kids, and if our kids look at our own lives, some of your kids are grown, some are small, some don't have kids yet, but they should be able to look at our lives and know that God is a priority. So with that as the setting, I want to get into the parable of the hidden treasure, chapter 13, verse 44. And if you weren't here last week, go and check out last week's messages. We messaged a few weeks before as well. Jesus has been talking about parables and different stories. And what was the whole point of the parable? To awaken. To awaken. To go through a back door. Because we're not good at confrontation head on. God needs to come through the back door and show us in a way that, oh, that's me. That was the point of the parables, to draw out something in our life that we don't normally see. So the parable, it's called the parable of the hidden treasure. And Jesus says again, because he's been talking about the kingdom of heaven. 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. And I want to just stop there for a minute and talk about this. The kingdom of God is valuable. It's very valuable. I don't think we realize how valuable this treasure is. And misaligned priorities, when our priorities are misaligned, and I'm preaching to myself here, because it's very hard to keep consistent priorities. God, family, church, relationships, all these things, you've got to keep these priorities. And the enemy likes to come in and knock us off track and get our priorities way over here. So I've got priorities. And I want to watch Fifty Shades of Grey instead of go to church. Bad priority. I saw a good article that's called Fifty Shades of Garbage. And I'm just saying that because it's in our culture now, and it's alarming that Christians are being drawn towards this type of entertainment. But is it really? It really shows the condition of a person's heart. What they view consistently. I mean, we've all watched questionable material. But consistently what we view, it shows the condition of our heart. These things should not entertain us, church. Darkness should not entertain light. Sexual perversion should not entertain those who are focused on God. The flesh might like it, but your spirit should say, no way in the world are you going to watch that. So we see this shifting of priorities. And whatever is drawing me away from my priority with God must be eliminated. And you might say, that's a pretty strong statement. But think about it. If something's pulling you away from God and your relationship with God, it must be eliminated. Now there's seasons in life. I've told you I'm coaching a little league team right now, and it's very hard. It's like I took a second job. Part-time job. And there's a season for a few months. It's worth it. But I'm talking about there's things that are pulling, and actually it's not pulling me away from God. I'm still getting my time in the morning. But when Jesus said, if your eye causes you to sin, cut it out. If your hand causes you to sin, pluck it off. Or pluck it out. Cut it off. Why? Because they're causing us to sin. So we have misaligned priorities, and there's something in my life that is causing me to drift from God. You don't think that thing should be removed? That's why I talk often about entertainment, and unplugging the TV for the love of God, or the computer. I mean, if these things take all our time, and they're zapping our strength, and they're pulling us away from God, at what point do we say enough is enough? Enough is enough! I just realized that this week. I actually lost my phone. And a few of you know I didn't lose my phone, right? I'll be transparent here. I was walking down at the aqueduct, and I walked down on the side of the aqueduct. And it got slippery. And I just ended up in the aqueduct. And I couldn't get out, because the side's slippery. So I'm like, well, no, I'm not going to die here. I see a ladder that's 40 feet down there. My dog's sitting here laughing at me. So I found a little ledge on the concrete, pulled up, put my foot up, and finally got out. Well, guess what went in the water? And my mom said, oh, did you want to scream? I said, no, I actually was so happy. So Monday's going to be five days without a phone. And I've been talking to my wife like, can I do this? I mean, is that possible? Is there freedom in that? I don't think I could, you know, with kids and coaching in the church. But, boy, this is a wonderful few days. And I only say that because you don't realize how quiet life is. Unless I go somewhere on my wife's computer and check my e-mail, I'm not going to get a beep, beep, beep, because my phone would beep for e-mail, beep for text, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, every five minutes. And it's just realizing, gosh, if I get that phone back, I need to just turn it off a lot of times instead of beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, priorities. And the kids say, Dad, why? And just learning, okay, that really helped me realize that, hey, I survived. Try going four or five days without a phone. Because I was going like, it withdraws. Oh, man. And then I would leave and go this, I can just go to the store and go to the Sports Chalet and buy it without, just quiet. Unbelievable. But it really taught me that I need to get my priorities back in check when I get a phone. I don't know when, I'm not in a hurry. But, and just make that not control me, me control it. It's okay to turn it off. It's okay to have some boundaries there. Because it will zap your strength. I mean, it becomes addictive. You hear the beep, beep, beep, oh, I wonder what that is, I wonder what that is, I wonder what that is. And guess what? It usually adds more chaos. And more confusion. And I don't know if we were supposed to communicate with that many people. I don't know if we were designed that way. I hooked up Gmail five years ago, now I've got 3,000 contacts in Gmail. So I don't, I mean, were we designed to deal with that much stuff? Now everybody hears a sermon on the radio they don't like, they can tell me off real quick. Beep, oh, what is that? Oh, I'm not listening to you ever again, you really upset me. Wow, okay. And then, it's like, were we created to, and then, how many things did I get of people texting me, look at this, these 21 guys are getting beheaded. I'm like, that just ruined my day. I mean, are we supposed to absorb all of that? That much influx of media, and knowing what's going on everywhere? So to me, it's been very relaxing, taking time with the Lord, you know, my wife and kids, I can actually went to the park with the kids, didn't have to check, just spend time with them, kicking footballs for an hour, just playing with them. And I realized, you know what, my priorities can get out of whack. They can get off on these little things, that we think are little, but if they're zapping your time, they're zapping your energy, and you can tell that there's a drawing away from God, I wouldn't say they would draw me away from God, but in the mornings I found, people know I'm up early, so, you know, getting texts at 5, 15, 5.30, and responding back in the baseball, and I got a coach tonight, is it still on? And I'm like, okay, an hour went by, and I didn't study. My wife always says, turn that off, it's fine. And so those kind of things can distract. And guess what, after that hour, on the phone, I'm not happy camper. I'm stressed, because I know it should have been time in prayer and worship. So when you can get your priorities back on track, there's tremendous freedom there. When everything is in line, this, and then this, and then this. Now here's a question I was getting off a little bit. We have an American mentality of priorities. I don't know if you've noticed this, even in the church. Eat, drink, and be merry until the rapture comes. Eat, drink, and be merry until the rapture comes. Are you well aware that theologians are divided on the rapture? Are you aware that you might see some persecution? I mean, it's going to be real hard to go to Egypt and say, oh, guys, you just missed the rapture. You know, sorry, but we're going to experience it. And they're being persecuted, they're being burned. I mean, so be very careful what you're living for, and how you're, you know, let me just eat, drink, and be merry, and then I'll be taken up before all the bad stuff happens. I don't know. You better not count on that. I pray for the rapture. Oh, Lord, please come and take us. But you have to prepare for as if you might go through persecution. Where there might kids, I might have to teach my kids, someday somebody might pull a gun to your head and say, denounce Christ or die. I have to face them with those realities. That's the world we live in, but there's an American type of priorities that I've seen that, you know, and we joke about that movie, but it's like, oh, that's, you know, people see the beheadings. Oh, that's so sad, as they drive to watch Fifty Shades of Grey. Christians, that's a culture we live in. That's the church. Oh, how sad. You have no clue. Why? Because priorities are misaligned. Priorities are not correct. Now, here's the interesting thing. Let me read it again. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man finds, and then he hides it. So it's like, picture he's walking out in the desert, finds his treasure, and then he hides it. But for joy over it, he goes and sells everything, and then he buys a field so he can have the treasure. So it begs the question, does the owner of the land not know about the treasure, or does he not view it as treasure? Because either the owner of this land didn't know it existed, or he knew. He's like, that's like all those guys who bought that land years ago where the Borax plant is. That's just Borax. What are you going to do with that stuff? And now it's a billion-dollar, you know, industry if they didn't see the treasure there. And I think, you know, I read a lot of different commentaries, of course. Once I get the sermon down, I want to look and see what other people say about it, because obviously we don't, you know, you need to look to other sources just to check things. But I think both can be true. Many are not aware of the treasure, and many care less. So we know that a lot of people are not aware that they hold, that there's a treasure that's possible, the kingdom of God. And if you just sit and think about this, this isn't about money and retirement and joy. This is about the kingdom of God. Eternity. Eternity separated from God. We talked about hell last week or a few weeks ago. We talked about the realities of heaven and hell, the realities of eternal separation. And there's a treasure that we can go and possess to make sure we're secure. That sounds pretty valuable to me. I don't know. It doesn't seem to many other people they could care less. Rob Bell goes on Oprah this week and says, oh, the church is coming around soon. Everybody's going to embrace gay marriage. Oh, really? I don't think so. Rob, you're bordering on being a false prophet there. This is not a good direction to be going. The majority of the church that wants to be liked, the majority of the church that cares less about absolute truth, that church, sure. But those who are in the Word of God and changed by the truth of God's Word and understand that His truths are absolutes, they can't be flexible, they can't be bended, they can't be removed, we understand that's wrong. That's absolutely wrong. So you see this big shift that's happening. Many could care less about this treasure. And this treasure does change everything. You notice how when this guy found it, everything changed. He sold everything. He had to buy this treasure. And that's what the kingdom of God should do. When it affects you, your priorities should not look like the world's priorities. And you guys know I write for the Christian Post and different places pick it up. And I'm amazed at how many Christians email me and they're mad when I say things like, that's legalism. That's legalism? How's that legalism? How's not wanting to look like the world and obeying the Word of God? How's that legalistic? How's that moralistic? It's probably because you don't like what I said. It's why. If my priorities look just like the world, then what do you do with come out from among them and be separate? If I'm watching the same things, spending the same amount of money, doing the same things, if I look just like the world, the Bible says that's not good. For the love of the Father is not in you. And John actually says, I believe it's 1 John, he who says they know him, Christ, but does not do his commandments, they are a liar. And the truth is not in them. Listen, if you take this seriously as I do, those are some warnings to have us check our hearts and our priorities. But on this point, I like what John Nolan said, he's a commentator. Ownership of the field does not come easily. Think about this. What is the field? He found the treasure, the kingdom of God. Ownership of this field does not come easily. It involves a total reordering of priorities. Since to achieve ownership, the finder must first liquidate all of his assets. Everything must be focused on the single goal of owning the field in which the treasure is to be found. Nothing less will suffice. The field is purchased, and the treasure is secured. So he's not saying, I'm not saying, nobody's saying to take out of this, oh, you have to go and sell everything and go live in a hut, and that's how you gain favor with God. But we should look at our possessions. We should look at things and say, are these things pulling me away from God? Uh-oh, I guess I've got to stay right here. Reverb in the mic. So is it pulling me away from God? Or is it keeping me anchored to Him? And I found that we give up so much for so little. Have you noticed that? That we will give up so much for so little. And we learned a few weeks ago that the worldly pursuits come in and they choke us away from our priorities. So you might say, Shane, how do you get your priorities right? And this is interesting because on a sermon like this, I could have a checklist. You know, plan ahead, the phone thing I talked about, scheduling, and all these things. But what I found is the way to get our priorities right is to seek first the kingdom of God. Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you. If God is not a priority, then nothing else will fall into place. And today, everybody seems to be busy as if that's a sign of godliness. You realize that busyness is not godliness, correct? We need to slow down. And then he goes right into the next parable of the pearl of great price. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and he bought it. Kind of the same thing, but now he's talking about somebody finding a pearl of great price instead of something in the land. But this tells me when he found it, when he found it, this is a good time to remind you what I've reminded you many times before, that finding something involves seeking. You can't find it if you're not seeking. You can't get the priority straight if you're not seeking. Finding something involves seeking. There's a seeking there. But here's what we do. We let the I don't feel like it control our lives. Or is it just me? I don't feel like doing something. I don't feel like it. What about when spouses, when they're arguing? I don't feel like talking. Well, what happens after they talk? The reward, hopefully. Or the couch out in another room. Okay, I'm glad we talked. I don't feel like walking, exercising, eating healthy. I don't feel like all those things, but what are the benefits? Oh, I don't feel like speaking graciously. Like when we, you know, be slow to speak, speak graciously, season your words with grace. I don't feel like doing that. I'm angry right now. But what happens after you do that? A gentle answer turns away wrath. I don't feel like reading the Bible. I don't feel like doing these disciplines. But see, the result comes later. The reward actually comes later. So when it comes to priorities, very rarely will you feel like it all the time. I don't feel like it. I don't feel like doing this. Yeah, welcome to the sinful, fallen world where our flesh doesn't want to do anything that resembles a passion for God. And I think if we can get that in our minds, that's why discipline is so important, and perseverance, and commitment, doing things even when we don't feel like it. Remember the definition? The purpose of priorities is to put first things first, even when we don't feel like it, and especially when we don't feel like it. That's the whole purpose of priorities. Let me read that again. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and he bought it. So again, what did we just say? This is a good time to remind you that finding involves seeking. So if you want to find, if you've maybe drifted from God in this area, drifted from God in the area of priorities, to find Him again, that involves seeking. And there's a few scriptures I put in your bulletin, 1 Chronicles. Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His face continually. There's a continuation there. So many people say, well, I saw Him tonight, and He didn't answer. Yeah, what'd you do yesterday? What are you going to do tomorrow? It's a process of continually seeking. Listen, this isn't a genie in a bottle. Let me rub it and see what happens. There's my three wishes. I saw Him for 10 minutes. No, this is a heart bent towards God, continually seeking Him with all of my heart, with all of my strength. Though I fall on my face on Monday, I'm going to get up on Tuesday. I'm going to seek Him Wednesday. I'm going to seek Him Thursday. Friday was difficult, but Saturday I'm coming to seek Him again. It's this continual process of seeking Him. Without that, you will not find Him. This isn't some little kid hidden in the corner that you try to find real quick, which I do all the time with my little ones. This is a God who says, seek Me with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your strength. Then you'll find Me. But so many people get to that, I tried it. I tried it. I'm bored in church. I'm falling asleep. And there's no continuation there. It's not continually. It's in actually little segments that fit our lifestyle. When God says, I want you wholeheartedly. Seek the Lord and His strength. Are you weary tonight? It's His strength, not yours. Seek His face continually. In 1 Chronicles 22, now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God. Now set your heart. That's like setting a bone. You have to set your heart to seek Him. Lord, I don't want to. I don't feel like it. I don't want to do this, but I have to set my heart. My heart's not going to tell me what to do. I'm going to tell it what to do. I'm going to set my heart towards Him. And it's hard. How many of us don't feel like coming to church? I know everybody in this room doesn't just, God, I can't wait to get there. Let's go. Let's leave early. Come on. I know it's fighting and kicking and screaming all the way. Man, we just went last week. Why again? Oh man, there's something going on. I think Poppy's growing. Let's go do that instead. And I know it's hard. I used to be sitting in the pew five years ago. And I had lots of excuses. And doing this now, it really shows me, like everything now centers on Saturdays. This is my priority. No sports. No birthdays. Nothing, nothing. This is it. This is priority number one. Uno. So everything else must fall in place. At least for me. I have to do that. And then one of the favorite verses that I read last week, I want to do it again. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Some of you need to hear that. Seek the Lord while he may be found. There will become a time and a place where you will no longer be able to find God when you die. And there's not another, oh wait, when I get in front of him, by the pearly gates, as if there's pearly gates, when I get in front of him, then I'll give him my sales pitch. I'll show him everything that I did was good. He'll say no. There's a time. That's why it says seek the Lord now. There's always an urgency. You'll never see in the Bible, give it a couple years. Have your fun now. It's always now. Seek the Lord now while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord. Oh, if I could tell our nation that right now, if I could tell the prodigal son, the wayward daughter, if I could tell everybody, listen, listen, call on him now. Return to him. Return and give up your wicked ways and return to the Lord. Remove those ungodly thoughts. Remove that wickedness and turn to him. Let him save you. Let him secure you. Let him fill you with his spirit. That's what seeking involves. And that says he will have compassion on him and to our God he will abundantly pardon. And there's a release that comes from seeking God. Many people, they're bound. If they don't know Christ, that's a whole different story. But once they come to faith and knowledge in God, there's a release. There's a pardon. He's abundantly pardoned them. And if you don't know God, the Bible just says, if you confess with your mouth that Christ is Lord and believe that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Basically, it's a person saying, I'm a sinner. Lord, I need your sacrifice. I need your son. I turn to him. I turn to you. Lord, would you save me? And then there's a pardon that takes place and then there's a release. But I also believe in the lives of many Christians, we can get bound by sin. Have you ever been to that spot where you're so bound up? You can't seem to get rid of this. You keep falling and falling and falling. God says, turn to me. Turn from those wicked ways. Turn from those wicked thoughts. Return to me. I will pardon, not for salvation, but to release you of that burden you've been carrying. And from that comes a tremendous freedom. That's why I have to worship him, guys. I have to. I don't know about you, but I have to worship him. He saved me. Like we sang, I was blind, but now I see. I was lost, and now I've been found. This isn't lost like you losing your car keys. This is lost for eternity. Eternal separation from God. Outer darkness. The Bible says weeping and gnashing of teeth. Shane, why are you trying to scare me? I'm not trying to scare you. I'm trying to awaken you. Wake up. Wake up. That's what we need to hear. You will seek me, and you will find me when you search for me with all of your heart. Jeremiah 29. So when you search for God with all of your heart, you will find him. You will find him. Here's the key. We have a priority problem because we have a seeking problem. I did. I had a checklist here. Here's how to get your priorities in line. Here's how you do this. The reason we have a priority problem, most people, is they have a seeking problem. They're not seeking God with all of their heart. What do you think the Scripture means when it says, seek God, love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength? That, to me, embodies everything. That should be an all-consuming passion, all-consuming fire. And then when I seek him, everything else falls in place. My time is maximized. My energy is focused. My heart is on fire for his glory. My life has purpose and meaning. Sorrow has turned to joy, and depression has turned to excitement. When I seek him, it doesn't mean there's not difficult valleys, but overall, there's tremendous peace. But seeking must be a priority. Seeking must be a priority. It's interesting. Sometimes we sing, there's a song out there, the more I seek you, the more I find you, the more I find you, the more I love you, the more I seek you, the more I find you, this whole thing. I don't like that song. Well, those who are truly seeking God don't have a problem with that song. Because they know. Again, he died for me. He delivered me from my destruction. He encourages me. He forgives me. He's an ever-present help in the time of need. The Bible says, where can I go and flee your presence? Where can I go and get rid of you, God? Where can I go? It says, if I ascend into heaven, you are there. Up into heaven, behold, if I make my bed in hell, even you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and go to the farthest parts of the ocean, all the way out there, the Bible says, even you are there. You are there to sustain me, to hold me, to guide me. And I get passionate about this area because it's a lie. Men are believing a lie that real men don't worship. Seeking God is not manly. King David, who killed more men than anybody. And the Bible says that you will not even build my house because you shed too much blood, God said. Elijah called down fire from heaven. These are worshippers. Samson was a worshipper. Elijah was a worshipper. Men and women of God are worshippers. It's not trying to be cute. That's truth. Real men actually worship God. I've said many times before, when I was bench pressing a lot of weight and getting big and beating big people up and getting drunk and partying, that was a real man. No, that's not a real man. I was dying inside. I couldn't say one gracious word if I tried. Anger ruled and dominated my heart. My flesh was destroying me. That's a real man? The problem is the enemy's got your heart. You've got handcuffs on. Oh, you'll jump up and down when your favorite team wins. 3,000 back on my taxes, some of you. Say, yeah, I can't believe it. Let's go celebrate. Look how excited you get. Look how excited you get for 3,000. It's going to be gone on one vacation. But you've got a God who's not only saved you, but He's a continual presence. Hell, He'll be there 2 in the morning, 3 in the morning, 4 in the morning. That's who we serve. Yeah, we don't want to worship Him. We don't want to seek Him. That's boring. No, it's because your heart's dead to the things of God or it's dying. It needs spiritual resuscitation. Call the paramedics. Something's got to spark. And it's funny, this week I said, Lord, you know, sometimes I go to Him too with many problems. I said, I'm tired of preaching. You know why? Because they need more of you and less of me. Listen, guys, I love it, but I'm tired of preaching. And we go, thank you. Good job. We'll see you next week. I'd go home and say, Lord, that's not what you called me to do. We need more of you and less of me. I'm tired of everybody smiling as if everything's okay. I'm tired of superficial fellowship, and I'm tired of people telling me what I want to hear. I'm just being honest. Of course, I'm not going to quit preaching. I love it. That's what God's called me to do. But I'm tired of preaching and sharing my heart. And I see so many people, all their problems would end if they would just worship, if they would just seek Him, if they would just seek Him. Sometimes now I've got people calling a lot from even out of state, and they want counseling appointments. And I say, what in the world am I going to tell you in private that I haven't said from the pulpit? If the preaching hasn't changed, you rest assured that the counseling's sure not going to. That's the problem. The majority of problems is we're not seeking God. Because if I'm seeking God and worshiping, I'll go home and apologize to my wife and let tears flow and say I'm sorry. Or wives to your husbands, or vice versa, or singleness. Purity would be a focal point of your life. If we would just worship God, if we would just seek Him, that would end half of our problems. And that's being generous. I'm thinking it would end most of them. Because everything, the problems are rooted in carnality. They're rooted in the lust of the flesh. They're rooted in bitterness and all these things. If we would just seek God and worship Him, the more I seek Him, the more I find Him, the more I want to worship Him. That's how it works. Oh, church, seek Him while He may be found. Call on Him. Do you know how blessed we are that we can come and worship? Try this 8,000 miles away in different countries. We're so blessed, and yet we're so callous to the things of God. I'm only saying this because I can drift as well. And let me close with this, with the pearl of great price or the treasure He found in the land. It was interesting. I asked a few days, I was thinking, why didn't they just grab the treasure? Hey, I found a treasure. Why didn't I grab it? Same reason we can't. It's not theirs. A price had to be paid. In both of those cases, that's not their treasure. A price had to be paid. Both of these men had to go and sell everything that they possessed. You don't have to do that for salvation. But two things I want to glean from this. A price has to be paid by you to find this treasure. A price has to be paid by you. It's called dying to self. To truly experience the kingdom of God and have the passion I'm talking about, to truly have this passion, you have to die to self. The truth of the matter is you can't love the world and God at the same time. One or the other. You cannot serve two masters. And that's so many people are trying to serve. I love God, but I love this. I love, and we're trying, we're miserable. And so the majority of our problems come from this and not this. Of course, I couldn't end with just that, but a price had to be paid for us in order that we could access this treasure. Isn't that interesting how that goes back to Christ? They couldn't just grab the treasure. They had to pay the price. So we can't just grab the treasure. The kingdom of God is a treasure. It's an invaluable treasure that you cannot put a price tag on, but you can't grasp that treasure until you accept the price that Christ paid. He paid that price. And I know for some of you, that's in one ear and out the next. You know, I know all this. So at what point are you gonna say, okay, I accept that. I accept that treasure. I accept that price. And I accept Christ. I'm done playing games. I need to find that treasure while it can still be found. Listen, there's funerals happening every day. I don't try to scare or get emotional, but everybody in this room, it's not one out of 10, right? It's 10 out of 10 die. There will come a point in your life, in my life, where all the seeking, all the this won't matter. That's why there's a passion there. There's an urgency. The Bible's full of urgency and passion. It's a very good combination. I would suggest you get some. Because it turns you into spirit-filled believers when you put God first. Everything changes. How you spend your money, how you spend your time, who your friends are, what you wanna do, what you watch, what you view. Everything changes when the treasure of God is your focus.