In this devotional talk, the speaker begins by recalling personal travels to some of the world’s most stunning locations—Yosemite, Maui, Australia, and New Zealand—to illustrate the extraordinary beauty of creation. He then shifts to a theological claim that there exists a place even more beautiful than any earthly landscape: Heaven, a promise God has made to believers. Using two of Jesus’ parables—the pearl of great price and the hidden treasure in a field—the speaker explains the incomparable value and worth of the Kingdom of Heaven, emphasizing that it surpasses all material wealth and requires total devotion. The talk concludes with an invitation to trust in God’s promise and to seek this ultimate, divine beauty.
Chapters
What's the most amazing place you've ever been? The most beautiful place? If you think through the holidays you've taken or maybe where your parents have taken you, what places have you been to? You know, when I was a little boy, I can remember we used to go to Yosemite in Northern California where I was brought up every year. And we would spend a week or 2 weeks sometimes in Yosemite. And we would climb up Half Dome, which is amazing, or we would climb up Vernal Falls or one of the other waterfalls. And we would just spend time as a family in one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen. Then I got a little older and I went to Hawaii and I lived there for a while. And I lived on the island of Maui. And when I was living there, I thought the beach was beautiful, but one day some of the people at church took me up to Laura, which was a beautiful place up in the mountains. And there was waterfalls that would fall into a pool and then another waterfall to another pool and another waterfall to another pool. And there were 7 of these pools and you would sit in them and it was beautiful. You couldn't imagine there being anywhere more beautiful than that. Then I moved to Australia and I started traveling around and going to different places in Australia and there's just beautiful place after beautiful place and I just was amazed and am still how beautiful this earth is that God has made for us. But then at the beginning of this year my family and I went to New Zealand for a holiday and I saw a brand new world. I thought I'd seen the most beautiful places in the world but when you go to the South Island of New Zealand and you see these amazing rugged mountains and these beautiful pristine valleys with a road carving its way through You look through them and you think, "There couldn't be anywhere more beautiful than this." But do you know there is? There is a place more beautiful than anything you can find on earth. It's a place so beautiful that God has promised to take us there. He's going to take you there one day, one day. And Jesus has already been there. Jesus actually came from heaven. He came here to tell us about it, to tell us that He was preparing a way for us to get there. And Jesus sometimes tried to explain to people what Heaven was like. He would say, um, you know, 'cause He'd been there and nobody else had. And He would say, "No one else has been to Heaven, but I've been to Heaven, and so let me try to tell you something, what the Kingdom of Heaven is like." He'd say, "You know, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a pearl, a beautiful pearl, not a string of pearls, but one real gorgeous pearl that is so beautiful that nothing on earth could ever compare to it. Or another time he said, you know, the Kingdom of Heaven is like— it's like a man and he's walking through a field, and as he's walking through this field, he trips over something and he stops and he looks to see what he's tripped over, and there's a little bit of metal sticking up there. So he gets down and he digs and he finds the top of a treasure box. Treasure. And he thinks to himself, should I open it? No, no, I better not open it because it's not mine. I'll go find out who owns the field. And so this man goes and he makes his way to the town registry and he says, "Who owns that field? You know, the one by the road there with the little stream coming across it?" "Oh yes, we know who." And they tell him, and he goes home and he sells everything he has. He sells his house, he sells his horses, he sells everything that he owns, and he gets all of that money, and he goes to the man's house who owns that empty old field out in the middle of nowhere. And he says, "I want to buy your field." And the man says, "Which field is that?" He says, "The one, you know, with the little river that goes through it and there's a road next to it." He said, "Yeah, you know what? I haven't used that in a long time. I'll sell that to you for cheap." "Oh, I don't care what the price is. Look, here's everything I have." And this man gives him way more than the field is worth. But the man says, "You don't have to pay this much." And he says, "No, no, no, it's okay. I just want the field." Because he knows— remember, Jesus is saying this is what heaven is like. He knows that in that field is a tree a box full of treasure. What will be in it? So now that he's paid for the field, he goes back and he kneels down next to that box and he opens it up and he has to get a shovel and dig around it until he can get into it and he grabs the sides and he lifts it up and he sets it there on the ground and then he dusts off the top. Oh, it's beautiful. Even the box is beautiful. And then he gets a hold of the clasp and there's a lock on there and he opens it up So he just takes a crowbar and he breaks it and he opens up the clasp and there inside is treasure. So much treasure that you could never imagine and he couldn't even imagine that that much treasure could be in there. And this treasure outweighs so much more than what he paid for the field. Jesus said, "That's what the Kingdom of Heaven is like." It's hard to explain because when you think about it now and Jesus is talking to people just like you, just like you at home, he's talking to them saying, "I can't really explain what Heaven is like." because I've been there and I've seen that for me to describe it, even my best description would be like describing an empty field. But there's a treasure in that field, and I want you to be able to see that treasure with me one day.
