The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Level Up With Jesus: Trading for Treasure

Episode Date: July 31, 2020

What do you treasure most in your life? Today, Jeff challenges us to look within ourselves and examine whether our hearts are set on the Kingdom of God or some other worldly treasure. Each day of our lives, we have the opportunity to level up and make Jesus our most precious treasure. Snippet from the Show Did you know that you are a treasure to God? He gave up everything to obtain you. But will you do the same for him? Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail] Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, episode 177, level up with Jesus, trading for treasure. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show. Hey, thanks for joining me again this week. We are still in the midst of this COVID-19, and people are still identifying things that are essential in their life and hopefully making the adjustments that will reflect really the true value that we have set on the kingdom of God and following Jesus.

And I want to talk about a term today and offer to you something that might, well, not might, but it will be bigger and better than anything you have seen. on the internet or out in society, on television, anything you've read, I have something that is so valuable that you just might trade in everything for this treasure that I want to talk to you about today. By the way, if you do not get the show notes for every show, I give some scriptures and oftentimes quotes and things, and I'll give them to you. All you've got to do is text my name, one word, Jeff Kavens, and text it to 3377. And we'll put you on the list and you'll get all the notes for the upcoming shows. Not too long ago, I was looking at getting some new photography equipment

and some new recording equipment because I'm doing more of the podcasts and I've got some other things in the works that I'm really excited to tell you about in a few weeks. But I was looking at some new equipment, and I started to notice a term that was being used when talking about upgrading in your life, and it was the term that perhaps you're familiar with it, leveling up, level up, leveling up. It might be, for example, in the area of photography equipment. I was watching a YouTube presentation, and the guy was talking about, you know, the quality of your equipment and talking about the quality of your microphones and your cables and your recording device, whether it be a Zoom or something else.

And in the name of the video was it's time to level up. In other words, what he was saying was that you need to make your system even better. Maybe it's the lighting, maybe it's the recording equipment or the mic, but you need to level up. and that means to get your act together and a more quality setup. Well, you can think about leveling up in almost every area of your life. You can think about it with cars and you can think about it with your home or think about it with clothing or a bowling ball.

Yeah, some people want to level up with their bowling ball, whatever it might be. But I want to talk to you about leveling up with Jesus. and perhaps today's show, it will be the show that really makes a difference in your life. If you act on it and you make a decision that you want to level up with Jesus, I would say to you today that your life can be radically different in a good way. So leveling up with Jesus, let me ask you this question. Has anything really ever caught your attention in a way that it eventually caught your heart? Maybe it was one day you were surfing on the web and you ran into a sailboat, you know, someone talking about a sailboat.

And all of a sudden you're thinking about that, you know, really a lot. And then all of a sudden it moves from your mind to your heart. And you can't get it out of your mind and you can't get it out of your heart. And you're starting to do all kinds of investigating about sailboats and kits that you can buy or boats are already put together or clubs. that you can join or color schemes and places to go boating. And this has just really, really caught your heart. Well, a lot of people get caught up in things of this world, and they really do possess their heart,

and they would put it in the category of really a treasure in their life. And you can kind of fill in the blank, right? You know, it might be maybe it's not a boat, but maybe it's a motorcycle, or it's a knife collection, or its shoes or purses or whatever it might be. You find this stuff online or at the mall or at work. And as I said, it could really be anything. It's some of the big categories that people get kind of obsessed with,

which you know as well as I do, people can get obsessed with anything. I mean, anything. It's amazing what can capture the heart of people. We have clothes, car, shoes, purse, home, whatever it might. be. But you think about it constantly and your mind turns to how you can actually obtain it, right? It's not enough to look at it on the web. It's not enough to hear your friends talk about it. It's not enough to see a magazine about that particular topic. You must own it. You must possess it. It must become yours. And it will be in your closet someday. It'll be in your garage.

someday. It'll be in your safe someday. Well, I think you know what I'm talking about here, and that is the treasures in our life that we are, that we're willing to exchange our time and our talent and our passion for. And if I were to interview you on the Jeff Kaven show, I probably could identify some of the treasures in your life based on your time commitment and the money you've put into it and the enthusiasm and the passion of your heart. Well, years ago, I had a pretty impressive baseball collection, baseball card collection, I should say. You know, I grew up in that era in the 60s where you got, when you got baseball cards from tops, and you really didn't have this idea of a big treasure unless it was your home team and some of your favorite players.

And so consequently, you would take some of the cards and you would take your mom's clothes-close pin, close-line pin, whatever you call them, and you would attach it to the spokes on your bicycle. And so when you rode down the road with the baseball cards attached to the spokes of your bicycle, it would sound, you know, kind of like br-brm, it sounded like an engine and you were only eight, nine years old. But boy, it sounded like a motorcycle. It sounded like the real thing. Well, I had quite a collection, and as I grew into my early 20s, that collection had actually really, really grown into quite a valuable collection, to be honest with you.

I had Mickey Mantle cards, and I had Carl Yistremski, and I had Willie Mays, and Willie Starjole, and I had all of these really good baseball cards. And I had a Kirby Pocket. collection. If you don't know who Kirby Puckett is, he's a Hall of Famer from the Minnesota Twins, part of the 87 and 91 World Champion Minnesota Twins. Well, I had the largest Kirby Puckett collection in the country. I did. I had over 400 in some individual unique baseball cards that had Kirby Puckett on it. But there was one particular card where there was only, I think, three made. There was only three. I mean, they were really, really rare. And if I remember right,

I think it was on the back of some kind of offering or it was a prize in some kind of product like cereal or something like that. I don't remember off the top of my head. Well, anyway, I would go to these card shows and I would hunt for that card. And one day I went out to a baseball card convention and I was walking around and suddenly there it was. There it was. That rare, elusive, valuable, beautiful card that I had been looking for, one of only three in the world. And there it was in front of me. And I made my decision that day that I was going to get that card no matter what it would cost me. I didn't have much money, but I did have a lot of baseball cards. And so I think I went home after that. I looked through my collection. I came back and I had

with me a Carl Yostremski rookie. I had a Mickey Mantle, a Brooks Robinson. I had a Willie Mays and a handful of other stars whose cards individually were actually worth quite a bit of money. And I brought it in and I said to the guy behind the table, I said, I will give you all of these if you will give me that Kirby pocket pocket card. I'll give you all of them if you give me that Kirby Pucket card. And he looked at it and he kind of looked at the card and looked at what I was offering him. All of them were in little plastic sleeves, mint condition. And he looked through his donorous catalog to see the value of all the cards that I was giving him. And he said, okay, I'll do it. And I sold everything that I had brought to the show that day, which was probably

25, 30 cards. I sold all of it. I gave it all to him to buy that one treasured card. I had it. I brought it home. I showed my friends. I talked to everyone I knew about, look, I got that card. I've got that card, that treasure that only two other people in the world have. Well, that's something that really fits into what I want to talk to you about today. Maybe it wasn't baseball cards for you. Maybe it was a pair of cordovan shoes that you always wanted, and you had a black pair of shoes, and you had a tan or brown pair, but you always wanted that cordovan pair. And lo and behold, the company that you so respected came out with one, and you thought, wow, I want that. And you went into your closet and said, I'll give up all these shoes just to get that one.

Well, maybe it wasn't baseball cards. Maybe it wasn't shoes. Was it something in your life where you so looked at something and it had your heart that you thought, I've got to have that. I've got to have that. Well, the unfortunate thing about this is that in life, we change in our tastes and our likes sometimes from day to day. And what was a treasure yesterday is no longer a treasure today. What was a treasure when I was a kid is no longer a treasure in my life today. That purse, that car, fill in the blank, something else ranks number one now. Something else has got your attention. And the marketing machine in America is very happy to keep these things rolling out in front of you because they know that if something else takes

number one place in your mind and heart and your collection and your life, you'd probably be willing to trade five or six of the things in the past that were number one to get that new number one in your life. I want to talk to you about something so powerful that Jesus offers us that we would have to be fools to not trade in everything in all the number ones in the past and all the number ones today for this treasure that I want to talk to you about. And I'm going to do that right when I come back from the break here. Before we go to the break, I do want to make mentioned that I'd love to see you at my website, jeffcavens.com, and there I have all kinds of information and my books and all kinds of other things. And if you would like to stay in touch with me there,

you can sign up and I will give you, I'll send it right away, a PDF to you that has a list of all 73 books of the Bible and how many minutes it takes to read each one. Because you know that I'm a big advocate of trading in shows on television, network television, like an hour show for reading 1st Corinthians. I'm big on trading in a half-hour news segment for reading 1st, 2nd, 3rd John. And I think that that's a good way to invest our time. So I'll give you that PDF if you go to my website, Jeff Kavens.com. Be happy to send that your way. We're going to talk about that great treasure right after this. The Saints of the Old Testament would have longed to see what we see in the new covenant, especially God's presence in the Holy Eucharist. Hi, I'm Dr. Andrew Swoffer, theologian

and co-author of Ascension's newest great adventure Bible study, Hebrews, the new and eternal covenant. In this eight-session study on the book of Hebrews, Jeff Kavins and I highlight the movement from the old covenant to the new and show how Jesus Christ fulfills the deepest meaning of the temple and Old Testament priesthood. Through this study, you'll gain a deeper appreciation for the power of the Mass, as well as a better understanding of core Catholic beliefs regarding salvation, the sacraments, the creed, and Mary's role in salvation history. To learn more and discover how you can start this study on your own or with a group, visit ascensionpress.com backslash Hebrews. That's ascensionpress.com backslash Hebrews.

Hey, welcome back. We're talking about a treasure in our life that so, so grabs us that we would call it number one. But today, Jesus, and by the way, this was the reading not too long ago on Sunday, Jesus sets before us something that is so wonderful, so life-changing, so satisfying and meaningful that when you see it, you would be willing to sell everything. And I mean everything just to get it. Yes, there is a card that is the ultimate in life. There is that elusive card that we've heard about. And today I want to put that card in front of you, and that card is the kingdom of God. It's a the kingdom of God, and I'm inviting you to level up with Jesus. I'm inviting you to change your game

and to go up to a new level, and that level is very, very seriously following Jesus with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your strength. So what is the kingdom of God? Well, the kingdom of God is where Jesus is ruling and reigning in your life. not just as something that we verbally make assent to and say, yeah, I believe that. I believe he's the king of kings. I believe he's the Lord. I believe he created me and he created the world. Check, check, check. I believe all those things. That's not what I'm talking about when I talk about the kingdom of God. I'm talking about experiencing the kingdom of God. And Jesus gives a teaching in Matthew chapter 6. I'll put it in the show notes for you.

verses 25 to 33. He really kind of outlines a number of things that really capture people's attention today, and they're willing to give their time and their talent and their treasure to get other treasures. He says in Matthew 6, he says, therefore I tell you, don't be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. He says, is life not more than food and the body more than clothing? and then he gives an analogy he says look at the birds of the air they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them and then he asks a question are you not of more value than they and which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life

and why are you anxious about clothing consider the lilies of the field how they grow they neither toil nor spin And yet I tell you, even Solomon, in all of his glory, was not arrayed like one of these little, little, little, little lilies. But thrown into the oven, it says, it goes on, says, but if God so close the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, oh, you of little faith? Then he goes on and says, therefore, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear. For the Gentiles seek after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them all. Then he says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Now, in that description in Matthew 6, verses 25 through 33, he talks about a number of things that come with this kingdom of God. And we see the obvious ones, and we don't have to worry about

what we're going to eat or drink. He'll take care of you. You don't have to worry about clothing. He's going to give you clothing. You don't have to be anxious in life. You don't have to be anxious and filled with turmoil and worry and in doubt and all of this. You don't have to spend your life focusing on all of these things. And in America, praise God, we don't have to think about a lot of these things, do we? You know, most of us don't have to think about what we're going to eat today. Thanks be to God. We don't have to worry about the clothing that we have. We're going to all have clothing. And so our mind turns to other types of things like, you know, treasures or hobbies and passions. And we can even become anxious about that. But he says that,

look, God is going to take care of you. And don't spend your earthly years here focused on that type of treasure, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and guess what, all these things will be added to you as well. And so the things that we worry about so often, God offers us, if we would put priorities in a right order, and seek first the kingdom of God. Now, what is the kingdom of God? Again, it's the rule and reign of Christ in your life, not something that we just agree with, but something that we're actually embodying. We are actually, on it. We're allowing him to rule and reign in our lives, in our marriage, in our relationship with our children, our relationship with money, our relationship with our employer, our time,

what we look at, and so forth. And then he really drives this home later in the Gospel of Matthew in Chapter 13. I'll put this in the notes for you too. In Matthew 13 in verse 45, he says, and this is one of my top 100. In my Bible, I have a special color that I use for my top 100 verses, and this is prominently outlined. It says in Matthew 1345, again, and this is in a series of parables about the kingdom, and this is the penultimate parable right here.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of the pearls, of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl, of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it. You could put it another way, and you could say, again, the kingdom of heaven is like a little kid in search of a Kirby Pucket card, and when finding that one great Kirby Pucket card, went home, got all he had, and came back and sold all that he had, and bought the Kirby pocket card.

Now, when I was a child, I spoke like a child, an actor like a child, but now I'm a man. and act like a man. It's no longer baseball cards, but it's serious living. And this treasure is called a pearl in Jesus' teaching. And he offers that pearl to you today. He offers that pearl of great value to you, but he asks you to give up everything you have to obtain it, not because it's some great sacrifice, but because it's an opportunity. It's an opportunity to level up with Jesus rather than the things of this world. I hope you take that today, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic, where we are forced to really, really prioritize essentials in our lives. Think of it. It's tough. Jobs are tough. Money's tough. Relationships tough. Education with our kids are tough.

But the question is, are you still caught in the pattern that you were in before the pandemic? Or are you leveling up now? Are you taking your faith to a new level? Are you really going after that which is essential, the kingdom of God? That's what's happened to me during this pandemic. To be honest with you, is that my life has become so focused on Jesus in prayer and scripture and encouraging other people that I feel that right now, experiencing the kingdom of heaven in a deeper way than I have in the last 25 years.

So the treasure, the treasure must be, let's say that you say, yes, I want this treasure. What must you do? Well, you must treat the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, as the most important thing in life. In other words, you do what Jesus said. You seek it. You seek it. That means you are actively pursuing Christ and actively pursuing His Word, actively pursuing the sacraments and actively, actively pursuing the sharing of the kingdom with other people. So not only do we seek this and consider it the most important thing in our life, and I'm going to put these in the show notes for you too. Number two, we must nurture and care for it, protect it. Don't let anything else come in the way. Don't let any other priorities move into the number one place, because if the kingdom is number one in your life, it will color all of the world.

areas of your life. It won't be first among many. It will be first and it will influence many categories in your life. So you must nurture it, care for it as you would if you obtained the greatest pearl in the world. You would nurture it and care for it. And number three, you would use it. Like, I don't know if you've ever gone to a house that's been abandoned or you go out into the garage after a summer of not cleaning the garage up, you'll notice by the windows and up in the rafters, there'll be spider webs and bugs caught in it and there's dust on the ground and everything. They say that a realtor's, realtors say that a house that is left unused is very bad for the house. It deteriorates. And I would say the same with this treasure. Not that

the treasure in itself is going to deteriorate, but spider webs can. grow on the kingdom in your life if we don't use it if we don't exercise every aspect of the kingdom jesus rule and reign we must also number four share it in an enthusiastic way you know that people pay big money in rome to see treasures of the vatican they'll pay you know 20 30 bucks to go in there and see treasures of the of the vatican and so people have already demonstrated with museums and traveling shows that they're willing to make some sacrifice to see a treasure and to even get their picture alongside of a treasure, or someone they consider a treasure.

So share it in an enthusiastic way. Share it with other people during this pandemic. Tell them what it's like to live under the rule and reign of Jesus and to be a part of his kingdom. Don't be afraid. Don't be ashamed. Share it. And then number five, give others a chance to obtain it as well. In other words, don't keep it to

yourself. One of the things that we do so often is we gain the treasure that was so important to us and then we keep it to ourselves or lock it up in a safe and nobody enjoys it. The treasure that Jesus has given you, don't lock it away in a safe. Don't say, yeah, it's in my safe in the basement. I believe all that. Yeah, I'm a member of the kingdom. Give others a chance. to obtain what you've experienced. Explain it to them, describe it, show them, demonstrate, model it. Those things are very important when it comes to what we do with the kingdom of God. You see, this pearl of great price is Jesus. It is Jesus. He is the pearl of great price. and this kingdom of Jesus is made up of His Word, Scripture, and Tradition, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

This kingdom is made up of the sacraments and the church and the communion of saints. There's so many aspects to this communion that we can nurture, we can share, we can experience. Let me share this with you. I don't know if you've ever thought about it, but did you know that you are a treasure to God? God. You're created in the image and likeness of God. Did you know that you are a treasure to God? And listen to this. He gave up everything to obtain you. That's right. Jesus did what he's asking us to do. He gave up everything to obtain a great treasure, which was you. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him, should not perish, but experience everlasting life. Listen to what First Peter 1, 18, and 19 says, and it'll be in the notes. Peter says, you, you, that treasure of gods, you are ransomed from the futile ways

inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. did you get that Jesus possessed you and obtained you by paying the ultimate price of his precious blood that's what Jesus

does with the treasure he does for the treasure I should say he gives up everything for the treasure and that was you and now he asks us to give up everything for him and to follow him I know you agree but are we doing it

And so I want to encourage you, take a few steps of action here. Number one, take stock. What is the treasure in your life right now? Be honest about it. Write it down. What is your time invested in? What is your passion invested in? Your time on the Internet.

What's it invested in? Number two, how much of your life realistically is taken up in his kingdom? So you have to take stock. What are you investing in now? But how much of your time is taken up in his kingdom? number three invest an hour in prayer and honestly ask yourself what you need what do i need to do to adjust myself to obtain the kingdom to walk in this because certainly things are cluttering our lives and getting in the way number four avoid mindless searching whether it's at the mall or

whether it's online or wherever because you don't know and this is really tricky isn't it don't know when your heart will suddenly be caught, and you're down a rabbit hole, spending dozens of hours going after that which will not endure throughout eternity. And number five, make the cuts and determine how your time will be invested in getting the pearl of great price, that relationship with Jesus. You see, I've been thinking a lot about that this week, and I've been thinking. been asking Jesus and writing down in my little journal, all of the areas that I think I can cut and I can go after him with even more zeal and time and passion and resources. And I invite you to do

the same as well. Ask God to help you see the treasure that he is in his kingdom. Pray and ask him to help you see it and say, God, steer my heart in that direction. Help me, O Lord, to not be distracted with the things that catch me so often. I'll conclude with this beautiful poem. It was written by a Swedish, it was actually a Swedish hymn called, Oh, that Pearl of Great Price, which begins, oh, that pearl of great price, have you found it? Is the Savior supreme in your love? Oh, consider it well ere you answer, as you hope for a welcome above, have you given up all for this treasure, have you counted past gains as but loss? Has your trust in yourself and your merits come to not before Christ and His cross?

Beautiful. I'll put that in the notes for you as well. Let me pray for you, and I just encourage you, level up with Jesus. Trade for the treasure. Give up your life to serve him at this time. Those habits that we put in concrete now during this COVID-19 will last. beyond. We don't want to go back to the way we were and we don't want to settle for vain habits that get us nowhere and only disappoint. Let's pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you today for giving us life and life more abundantly.

You have given us, Lord, the choice of your kingdom. And Lord, we say yes today. We will give up everything for you. Help us to help us to take stock and make the change. that needs to be made. We love you. We do want to serve you. Help us. We beg you today. In Jesus name, amen. Name of the Father and the Son, in the Holy Spirit, amen. I love you. Pray for me. I'm going to pray for you. And I look forward already to be back with you next week. God bless. Thank you.