The Treasure Between the Thieves
“Not looking back or ahead but taking action NOW!”
Scripture:
Luke 23:39-43
Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.
Psalms 119:18
Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from your law.
Introduction:
I recently read a story about a man in the 1800s who was a farmer in South Africa whose name was Ali Hafed. He worked and lived on his farm. He had an ox, a plow. He had acres of land that he would cultivate to grow produce to provide for his family.
One day a man came by and saw how hard Ali was working and he made the comment “It’s a shame that you have to work like that.” He proceeded to tell him that if he could go to India, where they had recently discovered diamond mines.
He told him of a place called the Valley of the Moon. Place between two mountains and all he had to do was stand in the stream and pull out diamonds the size of rocks and become extremely wealthy.
As the man lay in his bed that night next to his wife he became Very discontent. All he could think about is what life could be like if he found some of those diamonds.
After some time, he decided to move his wife and kids in with some relatives and sell the farm. After all, if he found diamonds, he wouldn’t need it anymore. Ali left in pursuit of wealth and riches and he finally gets to the Valley of the Moon and stands in the stream that the stranger had told him about only to lower his hands and come back up with nothing.
He decided to take his search all over Europe, determined to find diamonds so that his family could have a better life. After several years of searching and only coming up empty handed he finds himself in great despair in Spain.
He rights a suicide note and sends it to his wife that said “there are no diamonds anywhere.”
A few years later the man that he sold the land to was plowing the same field that he sold before pursuing diamonds. He was plowing and the ground was so hard. The plow was kicking up rocks and beating him to death and all of the sudden this stranger comes by and talks to the new owner.
He asked how the new farm was coming along and the man responded and said it would be a lot better if there wasn’t so many rocks here. The stranger came up the pile of rocks the man had thrown to the side and said “Do you know what these are?” The man responded and said “Rocks”.
The stranger picked up one that was very colorful in the sunlight and while looking at it he said this is not an average rock, this is a diamond. It turns out that the land Ali sold in pursuit of riches became one of the most famous diamond mines in history, Golconda.
This is where royalty all over Europe would buy their diamonds because of the purity and the clarity of the diamonds found in this farm. Ali sold it and traveled the world and never stopped to realize that what he had in the moment was a field of diamonds.
You may feel like Ali. That your life is meaningless, where you live is worthless, your spouse is worthless, your job is worthless…undervaluing all that you have but underneath the surface of all of those things is potential that is only unlocked when you choose not to sell out but to stay and cultivate what God has given you in the moment.
There’s potential in your job. There’s potential in your town, in your marriage, in your family, in your church.
The answer to your dreams could possible be right at your fingertips if you could only see what was possible and believe.
- Open My Eyes
David said “Open my eyes that I may see.” I know that some of you in the house today don’t feel blessed. You don’t feel rich. You don’t feel like your life has value and what you are doing in the moment is actually making a difference.
You aren’t seeing it because your eyes are not open to it.
You have your eyes fixated on everyone else and everything else. It is hard to realize how blessed you actually are when you can’t see past someone else’s blessings. You compare your job to someone else’s. Your marriage to someone else’s. Your children to someone else’s.
You cant be happy with what you have because it isn’t as good was what someone else has. You need to open your eyes and realized that you are rich. Drop the comparison and realize that if you know Jesus and your name is written in the lambs book of life, you are living in acres of diamonds right now!
Look at your neighbor and tell them…Open your eyes!
Open your eyes and see that you are blessed right now. Blessed in your coming. Blessed in your going. Bless in the city, blessed in the field. Come on somebody, paise him because your children are blessed, your assets are blessed, your marriage is blessed.
Not because of anything we can or could do on our own but because of HIM!
It is easy to get caught up with what you don't have have and what you have been through but open your eyes to his goodness. Open your eyes to his provision. Open your eyes to his mercy.
Open your eyes and see that he is good right NOW!
He doesn’t have to make your a millionaire before you see his goodness.
He doesn't have to heal your body before you see his goodness.
He doesn't have to fix your marriage before you see his goodness.
You can see his goodness right where you are!
Had Ali only stayed where he was, he would have had everything he had ever wanted but he could not see the good in where he was because his mind was consumed by the moment.
So many of us are rolling in a bed of discontentment because our field is hard. Our ground is hard. It’s throwing up rocks. It’s a hard row to plow. It’s hard to grow anything here. It’s hard to do anything here. With every row you plow you are complaining.
STOP!
Don’t you complain about the field your in because that field is producing diamonds under the surface. Every lap you make with that plow is bringing more to the surface.
You are speaking out of your emotions and not out of faith. Until you can speak positive, put one lip against the other and hush. Until you can speak life, don't speak at all!
When you feed negativity it will keep coming back for seconds.
No, your life might not be a hallmark movie or a perfect instagram reel but listen to me, there are diamonds where you are right now in this moment. You may feel like you have nothing and you are worth nothing but listen to the preacher today.
If you can go to sleep tonight knowing that your name is in the lambs book of life and that you are heaven bound with the hammer down; you are rich!
I just wish somebody would break free today and worship him not because you have everything that money can buy but because you have something that money can’t buy!
I may not be living in Beverly Hills but was living in the shadow of the almighty God; walking in his grace, walking in his mercy, walking in his favor. I am dwelling in the land of diamonds right now!
Some of you can’t worship because your mind is on what your don't have and your praise is captivated by what you don't have; but I wish someone would pray the prayer “God, open my eyes…” Let me see what I do have.
Let me see that I have a friend in Jesus who will stay when everyone else walks away. Let me see that I have a church family who loves me. Let me see that I have a great marriage, a great family.
Don’t let me live another day without seeing what you are doing right now in this moment.
You are out here complaining and crying about what you don't have but you better be thankful you aren’t in the morgue down town. That you aren’t in a hospital somewhere, that you are here. Clothed and in your right mind.
Praise him for what he is doing NOW!
2. The Birth of Greater
I know that the Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes that there is a time and season for everything. A time to be born, a time to die. A time to weep, a time to laugh. A time to keep, and a time to throw away.
We know that God himself works in seasons. We see that throughout scripture. So we have become seasonally minded.
Some of us are so used to quitting that every time someone looks at us funny or says something the wrong way; we think its a season change.
You will never reap a great reward if you are not willing to stay when things get tough.
Those diamonds under that soil didn’t get there over night. A diamond starts off as carbon and when two atoms collide from the heat and the pressure; it creates a diamond.
You may feel like everything is working against you rather than for you but we know that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and who are called according to his purpose.
I understand you might be feeling the pressure in the moment. I understand that it feels like the heat is turned up, but if you can endure for a little longer, greater will be birthed.
College student, don’t drop out of those classes. Momma, keep praying for the prodigal. Husband, don't walk away from that marriage. I know you want to throw in the towel, tuck tail and run but learn how to STAY!
It might take you longer than anyone else but stay.
Your family may call you crazy but stay.
You may hear reports of diamonds in a nearby places but stay.
You may have to study while everyone goes out.
You may have to work a littler harder when it comes natural to some.
You may have to fight for that marriage and go to counseling.
You may have to have difficult conversations.
You may have to set healthy boundaries.
If God has not released you, don’t walk away prematurely.
This is what blows my mind. Ali sold his farm that was worthless in his eyes. It wasn’t producing enough to make him rich so it wasn’t good enough.
Yet, someone else comes along. Buys the farm and the farm later becomes a mind for diamonds. That same ground. That same plow. That same ox.
What you sell today might make someone else a millionaire.
What are you saying Pastor. I am telling you to Hold on with every fiber of your being. I know it may seem like everything is falling apart but it is actually falling into place.
Hold on to the promise! Hold on to your miracle. Don’t sell your ground, plow your ground!
It might be rockier than others but open your eyes and see the beauty of where you are NOW!
“Well, Pastor you don’t know how hard life is for me right now. I haven’t been dealt a fair deck.”
Perspective is EVERYTHING.
Ali sold the land and left it. Someone bought THE SAME LAND and harvested diamonds on it.
If you walk away from it, but don’t be surprised when someone else takes that same plow and that same land and harvests diamonds.
3. The Treasure between the Thieves
In Luke chapter 23, Jesus is hanging on a cross. His flesh is torn and a crown of thorns has already been placed upon his head. He is hanging on the middle cross with a thief on the left and a thief on the right.
I want to refer to them as the thief of yesterday and the thief of someday.
He just prayed the prayer “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” One of the thief’s spoke up and said “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us.”
The other thief rebuked him and asked Jesus to remember him and Jesus responded and said “This day you shall be with me in paradise.”
What a statement.
The first thief was caught up in his past. He couldn’t see through it because he was caught up in a cycle of crime and that cycle is what let him to the cross.
The other thief as caught up with his future. Knowing that soon he would breath his last breath, he looked at Jesus and made preparation for the future.
If you aren’t careful in how you live, you will crucify today between the thieves of yesterday and someday.
yesterday is gone. I know you wish you could go back and do some things over and made different decisions but yesterday is gone and if you choose to stay there it will rob you of the joy that you could have today by causing you to live in shame, the pain, and the regret.
Some of you are stuck in the cycle of someday. Someday when I get that job it will be better. Someday I am going to walk in purpose. Someday I am going to quit that nasty habit. Someday I am going to forgive those who hurt me. Someday I am going to give my life to Christ.
Quit talking about someday when today has not passed you by.
If the thief of yesterday fails at taking your joy, the thief of someday will try to take it.
If you fixate on the future and what might happen or what could happen; you will fail to see the treasure between the two thieves.
Deuteronomy 33:25 says “As your days, so shall your strength be.”
God will give you the strength to handle whatever day you are in wether it is your past, your present, or your future.
If you are letting your mind wander over into someday, worrying about if you’ll have enough or be enough; God doesnt have grace for you in that space.
If you walk back to yesterday and start trying to figure out how things would be different if this or that didn’t happen; God doesnt have not have grace for you there either.
God is not there in your past or there in your someday’s…God is right HERE, right NOW!
If you want to live in peace, if you want to stay out of depression, if you want to keep away from worry, anxiety, fear, stress and so on….
START LIVING TODAY
Let yesterday go and let God work out tomorrow but don't let the thieves steal the treasure in the middle!
I am not going to let the thief of yesterday or the thief of tomorrow steal my joy today.
This is the day that the lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it!
Come on somebody! Praise him in this house for the NOW moment. That we can be blessed NOW. We can be transformed NOW. We can be free NOW. It isn’t a future occurrence or a missed opportunity it is a NOW moment!
Yesterday is a cashed check, tomorrow is a promissory note…but today, today is cash in hand.
Your healing, your miracle, your salvation, your opportunity, your joy, your peace…are all one word away….NOW!
Come on, Praise him in this house that it is happening, NOW! We have a reason to praise, NOW! We have a reason to rejoice, NOW!
Conclusion:
I’m finished…
Matthew Chapter 14, The disciples were in a boat by themselves. A storm came and they were all filled with fear. They were fighting for control of the boat but the storm was intense.
In the fourth watch of the night, Jesus comes to them walking on the waves. The disciples grew even more afraid because they didn’t think it was Jesus, they thought it was a ghost. A spirit.
They didn’t recognize him because they were not expecting him.
They were expecting an evil spirit. They were awaiting the devil to show up.
This is probably some of our mentalities today.
We are so stuck in the negativity that nothing good can ever happen to us. That girl is too good for me, that guy is too good for me. That loan going through to buy that house is too good for me. Getting that job is too good for me. My family getting saved is too good for me. Salvation…Jesus….is too good for me.
Are you expecting bad things or are you expecting Jesus?
The thief of yesterday is trying to rob you. Thief of someday is trying to rob you but there is a treasure in the middle because the middle represents NOW.
I came to tell someone because of the man who hung on the middle cross, salvation is being brought to you NOW. Negativity is being broke off of you, NOW. Sickness and disease is leaving you NOW!
Now spelled backwards is WON.
I am more than my past and I don’t have to wait until someday to be blessed and joyful…The battle is already won and I can it experience it NOW!
There is power in your now!
As the worship team begins to sing, I want you moving today quickly because i believe that God is breaking yesterdays mindset off of you. I believe that “too good to be true” thought process is leaving.
I believe God is breaking cycles and delivering you from the fear of someday.
There is POWER IN YOUR NOW!