God always says you matter. How do you respond?

>>This weekend I got to go to a service at Heartland [which is the church I attend], and they shared about the parable (a story told by Jesus with a heavenly meaning/the older male usually represents God) of the hidden treasure. If you don't know it, check it out sometime-Matthew 13:44-46.It is basically a story of love. And if you are anything like me right now, I was skeptical. Questions flooding my mind of: Why was this man in this field?It doesn't even belong to him!What if the treasure was someone else's?And what was he going to do with the treasure after he found it again?Does he buy bigger and better stuff?Or is he like Golum from Lord of the Rings, just sitting there petting it all day?I was really tormented.But as a very wise man told me, it is not about the details here but the fact.

read Matthew 25:14-30

The part I really want to focus on is this man with the one talent (your version might say "bags"), he seems to be my favorite. Why? Other than totally relating to this guy, I feel like a lot of people I know are the same. So what was this guy's deal: verses 24-25.

• do you ever feel like God is a "hard man" (hard in Greek here means harsh or stern)?
• do you think God is meddling in things that he shouldn't or are not his? (I find it ironic that the word "master" in Greek is "Lord")

read Matthew 10:31

>>Now I am not quite sure why Jesus compares us to sparrows (trust me I tried looking!), but it is again just one of those things you just take. Like 99% of things Christ says he uses what was familiar to the audience. All we know is that sparrows are small, sometimes annoying, cute sounding birds...but point is who you are and who you are in Christ is more important than anything else in Creation!/I want you to do something now, this is really cool-look up the music video Hurricane by Samestate and make sure to get one with the lyrics.

• Does it matter if you get or understand what God is up to?
• Have you lost your identity because you are too preoccupied with the past or tomorrow and not today?
• How do you get to the point of embracing what Jesus has done for you and wanting to give Him your best in return?

the finishing touches, read Matthew 7:24-29

• And lastly, could not having an active and daily love relationship with Christ causing your "house" to be on unstable land?

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."-1 John 4:18